Pacolli Calls for International Response to Vučić: Kosovo Will Protect Its Water Resources

Fitore Pacolli, acting Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, has responded to a statement by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić regarding the possibility of interfering with water resources and the infrastructure of the Ibër-Lepenc system.

Pacolli described Vučić’s position as deeply concerning and unacceptable.

She recalled that the Helsinki Convention requires states to cooperate on the equitable and reasonable use of transboundary waters, prevent harm across borders and protect aquatic ecosystems. According to her, water resources cannot be turned into instruments of threat, pressure or destabilization against another state.

The acting minister stressed that Ujman Lake and the Ibër-Lepenc system constitute critical strategic infrastructure of the Republic of Kosovo. She emphasized that the system is vital to supplying drinking water to hundreds of thousands of citizens, the operation of the energy sector, agriculture and the preservation of environmental balance across a significant part of the country.

According to Pacolli, any action or statement aimed at interfering with, damaging, diverting or unilaterally altering water flows and infrastructure, thereby causing consequences for Kosovo, cannot be treated as a matter of day-to-day politics. She said the issue concerns water, energy, environmental and human security, and therefore the international community must examine it with the utmost seriousness.

Pacolli called on the European Union, the United States of America, the United Nations and other international partners to respond to statements of this kind and demand full implementation of the principles and obligations arising from international law on transboundary waters.

Finally, she stated that the Republic of Kosovo will protect its water resources, critical infrastructure and the interests of its citizens in accordance with the Constitution, the laws of the Republic of Kosovo and the principles of international law.