How will the Lake of Weyman be used jointly by Kosovo and Serbia?

This agreement was signed by Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbia's President Aleksandar Vuciq at the White House on 4 September.

The Uyman Lake is the largest in Kosovo, which extends to the country's northwest, namely in Zubin Potok's municipality, this Serb-run municipality.

This lake covers 119 square miles [1,9 sq km] (of which 9.2 square km] on Kosovo's territory and 7 miles [27 km] on Serbia's territory) and 370 million cubic million water.

Wyman's feathers were built between 1970 and 84. The hydro power plant produces 35 megawatts per hour of electricity, while the Iber-Lepenc channel is 49km long and is built with Kosovo budget funds.

The Iber é Lepenci canal runs through the territory of five municipalities -- Zubin Potok, Mitrovica, Vushtrri, Obilic, Pristina -- passing through 33 rural settlements and two cities.

This lake is managed by the hydroeconomic company “Iber-Lepenc” with headquarters in Pristina, owned by the Government of Kosovo.

The chief executive chief of this company, Berat Lushtaku, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, said that Weyman Lake is owned by Iber-Lepenci in the Kosovo part and part of the Republic, and that is why he says necessary documents exist.

We will make all decisions with the Board of Directors and come up with a concrete conclusion on this issue. A 100 per cent shareholder is the Government of the Republic of Kosovo and they have rights over us”, Lushtaku said.

This artificial lake supplies drinking water to Mitrovica and Pristina's water supply. And, with crude water, Lushtaku says, supplies the Kosovo Energy Corporation and the NewCo Ferronikli company, located in Drenas, as well as for irrigation in some areas of Kosovo.

Otherwise, participants in this lake construction team call the agreement absurd, which says of the joint use of Lake”.

Haliim Gjergjiz, who has been part of the project in the 1970s, says this project at the time was built with loans from the World Bank, which the state of the former Yugoslavia has guaranteed, while obligations and agreements have signed federal units, in this case Kosovo.

He says the lake is built for the needs of Kosovo citizens.

The “is absurd that presents another party, what is Serbia. With all the documents, the entire construction history of that capacity, Serbia has no right to exploit or manage that system. Maybe, there'll be clarifications later on this deal, but right now it's absurd. Water cannot go to Serbia for exploitation. Serbia cannot use water in a common way, it is dedicated to Kosovo's” needs, Gjergjiz told Radio Free Europe.

As for Lake Weyman, Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, at a news conference from Washington said they agreed to have a feasibility study conducted by the US Department of Energy on this lake.

So, the U.S. Department of Energy, do a feasibility study on Uyman Lake for how the water of this lake will be used in the future, as a source of water and as an energy source. That's all, that's the truth about this”, says Hoti.

On the other hand, Zubin Potok has a Serbian-owned company called “Ibar” and established in 2002 and that Kosovo considers illegal.

In recent years, officials from Belgrade insisted on adopting this lake, which has been strongly opposed by the official authorities in Kosovo.

Even on September 8, 2018, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, had visited Lake Weman, where he had said that “Wyman is a very important lake for both Serbs and Albanians“.

So, according to him, it is important to find mutually acceptable solutions.

The Lake of Wyman, from Serbia and President Vuciq, was named Serbian economic resources and assets, which are bitterly opposed by authorities in Pristina.