General
Rivers
Lakes

General
In spite of relatively good developed economy, Bosnia and Herzegovina was not successful in development of water usage and protection. One can say that this region was the most polluted area in ex-Yugoslavia, especially along the valley of river Bosna, where was placed main part of the industry facilities.
Water quality near the towns of Zenica and Tuzla was very low, due to lack of wastewater treatment plants. Similar situation was downstream Neretva river.
Beside the problem of water quality deterioration, Bosnia and Herzegovina had problems with inadequate water supplying and sewerage system. Water supply system covered about 45% of the total area of the country (out of which about 90% was in urban areas) and sewerage system 70% in urban areas. That is why in 1991 the "Long-term water supplying program" for the period up to 2020 was produced.
Due to the war destruction, infrastructure of the country is heavily destroyed, what resulted in enormous problems concerning water supplying system and general utility services. In many urban centres water supplying is serious problem, sewerage functioning very bad, solid waste collecting is practically in collapse, what increases health hazard risks.
 

Rivers
Total length of river in Bosnia & Herzegovina is 2200km. All that lenght has been surveyed in national assessments and classification. There were 62 monitoring stations included in the surveys. Average long term annual atmospheric precipitation is 63900 mill m3. Average long term annual evapotranspiration is 27500 mill m3. Average long term annual inflow into country is 31900 mill m3 and average long term annual outflow is 36400 mill m3.

There are four classes of river water quality:

Parameters	I Class (mg/l)	II Class (mg/l)	III Class (mg/l)	IV Class (mg/l)
Suspend solids	to 10	to 30	to 80
Total solids (105°C)	to 350	to 1000	to 1500
Oxygen dissolved	>8	>6	>4	>0.5
BOD5	to 2	to 4	to 7
pH value	6.8-8.5	6.8-8.5	6.0-9.0
Saprobity degree	oligosap.	betams.	alfams.
Product. degree	oligotroph.	eutroph.
MPN of Coli (100ml)	200	6000
Color (visible)	colourless	colourless
Odor	no	no
Floating waste material	no	no	no	no

Source: Hydroengineering Institute (Official Gazzette 2/67)

1990 is the year of the most recent survey, and the percentage of total river length in each of the four classes is: I=3%, II=68%, III=15,9% and IV=13,0%.

Total area of important groundwater areas is 26300 km2.

Lakes

Surface area of lakes in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Size class (km2)	>=0.01-0.10	>0.1-1.0	>1-10	>10-100	>100
Number of water bodies	13	10	11	7	0

Source: Hydro-Engineering Institute

Data on reference lakes

No.	Lake name	Coordinates	Surface area (km2)	Mean depth (m)	Maximum depth (m)
1	BLIDINJE	43°36'30"-E17°30'00"	3,70	1,1	1,7
2	BORACKO	43°33'10"-E18°02'20"	0,25	10,0	13,9
3	ULOSKO	43°24'15"-E18°15'00"	0,07	9,0	14,5
4	PROKOSKO	44°12'30"-E17°45'30"	0,05	5,7	13,9

Source: Hydro-Engineering Institute