VISEGRAD, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Dejan Furtula sighed with despair while looking at construction machines working around the clock to remove tons of trash clogging the Drina River near his hometown of Visegrad, in eastern Bosnia.
The environmental activist is frustrated because the problem is not new. Every winter, garbage carried by swollen rivers in the region accumulates downstream, eventually piling up by barriers installed by a hydro power plant in Visegrad.
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