On 4^th June, Bosnia and Herzegovina's Ministry of Finance and Treasury signed a €8 million grant agreement with the World Bank to finance part of a project for the improvement of the Sava waterway.

The WBIF EU grant will finance the first phase of the development of the waterway on the Sava River corridor, which includes demining the right bank.

This project will enhance flood protection and strengthen cross-border cooperation in the water management of the Sava and Drina corridors.

The Western Balkans Investment Framework approved the grant, in addition to a €30m World Bank loan, which will be managed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The project will be implemented with the support of the BiH Communication and Transport Ministry.

The Rhine-Danube Corridor provides the main east-west navigation link across Continental Europe. One branch connects Germany to the Black Sea; a second branch leads to Ukraine. Its extension into the Western Balkans is via the Sava River.

This project involves the demining of 40 km on the right bank of the River Sava in Bosnia and Herzegovina to comply with safety and navigability requirements. The EU funds the demining works under Flagship 1 - Connecting East to West - of the Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans through the WBIF.

These investments are part of the Sava and Drina River Corridors Integrated Development Programme (SDIP), designed to facilitate joint water management and economic development. SDIP will be implemented in two-phases programmatic with five participating countries: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia.

One key objective of the SDIP programme is the development of the Sava River on a transboundary basis for the promotion of multimodal transport, which is a priority of the countries along the river. The improvements on the Sava River, as an international waterway, in line with the EU standards, which covers the Comprehensive and the Core Network of Inland waterways and ports of the Western Balkans region.

Together with another WBIF flagship investment in modernisation of Port of Brčko, these projects will contribute significantly to improved navigability and consequently the economic trade on the river Sava.

More about the project here