DON'T GIVE IN, CETINA! - STOP THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PERUĆA THERMAL POWER PLANT AND THE ECOCIDE OF THE CETINA RIVER. 

Within the framework of the VisViva project, it is envisaged to construct a gas-fired thermal power plant on the Peruća Lake. Constructing such a thermal power plant on the Peruća Lake would denote a geostrategic suicide and, in terms of economics, the plundering of the Croatian citizens and, most importantly, in terms of ecology, an ecocide of the Cetina River, the Peruća Lake, and the overall Cetina region. Why?

 The thermal power plant is to be built on the Peruća Lake, allowing it to use the Peruća Lake water for cooling. However, discharging the now warmer water would cause an increase in the Peruća Lake and the Cetina River temperature, bringing devastation to the biosystems of the Peruća Lake and the Cetina River. This represents the greatest pollution, although we, the local inhabitants, have no experience with waste heat pollution and it perhaps does not sound hazardous to us. Moreover, the thermal power plant would discharge 280,000 litres of waste water containing either acidic or alkaline hazardous chemicals into the Cetina River and the Peruća Lake daily, and over 2 million kilos of exhaust gases per hour into the air, i.e. approximately 620 kilos per second! The location envisaged for the construction of the thermal power plant is next to the Peruća dam where, due to the Peruća Lake situated upstream, and the Hrvace field and the Sinj field situated downstream, daily winds blow constantly. In addition to occasional summer rainstorms, these would be the “perfect” carriers of the pollution to the waters and soils of the overall Cetina region, but also to the wider Split area.

 These kinds of power plants are being shut down globally due to non-profitability, as evidenced by some of the lists of the shut-down gas-fired thermal power plants provided below. However, such a thermal power plant would be profitable here since the Republic of Croatia passed a new law in 2015 guaranteeing energy producers a much higher purchase price than the market price; this higher purchase price is, however, being paid by all of us through the subsidies on our electricity bills.

Finally, the envisaged thermal power plant location is in the heart of one of the greatest geostrategic potentials of Croatia: Cetina and Peruća represent the greatest potentials of drinking water in Croatia and one of the greatest in Europe, while the Dinara and Svilaja plateaus represent the greatest potentials of renewable energy sources (wind and sun). Energy and water are the two fundamental resources of the 21st century geostrategy!

 If the thermal power plant is constructed, the Cetina River and the Peruća Lake water will no longer be drinkable. Instead, one of the most valuable natural resources – the modern era gold – will be destroyed. Also, if the rest of the VisViva project ends up in private hands, so will one of the most valuable strategic points in Croatia. These are the reasons the Cetina region inhabitants protest against this project. A number of experts (physicists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, etc.) have publicly provided some clearly-stated, professional arguments against the thermal power plant construction. Therefore we invite you to sign this petition, to help us stop this megalomaniac project and save the Cetina River, the plant and animal life existing in it, and the lives of the Cetina region inhabitants, but also of the 500,000 inhabitants of the Split-Dalmatia County drinking water from the Cetina River!   #WaterisLife