[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

We filmed a life-threatening road near Foča: How the desire for profit kills people and nature, 2 August 2025

After a terrible tragedy occurred near Foča when a rock broke off and fell on a moving car, killing a young passenger from Sarajevo, we filmed a section of the road from Dobro Polje to Miljevina to determine the situation on the ground.

The entire section of the road is full of landslides and rockfalls, and it is obvious that the landslides are mainly located near the places where certain works are being carried out.

Concessions that enable the exploitation of natural resources have destroyed the wealth of these areas, which include rich forests and rivers. On one part of the section, a larger landslide occurred, causing rocks to bury the Bistrica River.

There are no danger warnings on this section, and temporary signage has been installed where rocks have damaged the road...

The Bistrica River Canyon similarly claimed one life last year when a truck driver was killed when a rock fell on him in a tunnel. After the tunnel was removed, a huge landslide appeared, which is still a problem today and threatens to completely disrupt road communication...

...[I]n the Bistrica canyon, the part of the road that we filmed, three hydroelectric power plants are being built, which is why there are already suspicions that the rockfall is due to the mining of the terrain necessary for their construction.

These are two larger hydroelectric power plants, with a capacity of over 10 megawatts, and one small hydroelectric power plant called Bistrica 1, 2 and 3. The concession is owned by the RS Electric Power Company, and the work is being carried out by the Chinese company Aero-Technology Corporation for International Engineering (AVIC-ENG), which is otherwise under US sanctions.

Activists warn that this has become unsafe ground since the work began, given that there are also quarries here, and that hills are being drilled during the work. The project has caused controversy, given that it threatens to destroy the Bistrica River...