People shocked with Zaovine Lake: Tombstones and house foundations appeared, there are only naked slopes and mud (VIDEO)

More than half, maybe two-thirds of the lake has been emptied, they said from the National Park Tara

Tourists, campers, fishermen and everybody who admire the national beauties of Tara, are wondering these days what has happened with the Zaovine lake, the water jewel surrounds with the forests of Picea Omorika.

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The level of Zaovine lake fell down drastically, the bays are basically dry, and the water that disappeared left naked slopes. There are now even the foundations of homes and tombstones. 

The water retreated around the base of Beli Rzav river and it has lost half of its depth. The lake turned to disgrace. To get down to the water, one needs to climb down the rocky cliffs or to step in mud up to the knees. The water level is dropping every day, the lake is disappearing, the pictures are getting sadder and uglier.

The photos of Zaovine lake are circling the internet these days.

Zaovine lake is on the mountain Tara near the place Zaovine and it is an artificial lake. It was created in the period of 1975 to 1983 when the flow of Beli Rzav was reconstructed with damn near the top Kik (989 m). The surface of the lake was on the height of 881.5 meters above the sea level. The greatest depth around 110 meters.

The lake has two additional streams, Konjska Reka and Beli Rzav. 

Zaovine lake is in the composition of the National Park Tara. The employees in the company are furious over the current state of the lake and they point out the consequences of the excessive discharge of water.

- More than half, maybe two-thirds of the lake has been emptied. Water is constantly falling, a few days ago the lake was 31 meters long, and it is currently 36 meters below the maximum. The water level has dropped so much and it looks a lot more due to high vertical sides. The bays are dry and deserted, the tourists we see here are disgusted - said Sinisa Jevtic, the manager of the fishing area of NP Tara.

This is the second consecutive year that the level of water drops this much, said Jevtic, and this will cause terrible damage to the number of fishes. 

- Breeding of sturgeons has failed, and breeding of other fish will fail too. The fish follows the water, it goes with it, it cannot compress in what little water is left. We are responsible to the fishermen who buy permits, but to the inspection and we will answer for not preserving the fish numbers. But we are not to blame. The monitoring of fish numbers is next year and I fear that it will show that the uncontrolled discharge of the lake has devastated biodiversity. Trout fish grounds are also in danger - says Jevtic.

At the hydroelectric power plant "Bajina Basta", they said that the current water level of the lake is 30 meters above the biological minimum.

Again, the beauty and the attractiveness of the lake on Tara, because of which every tourist visits this mountain, are the secondary purposes of its existence because Zaovine is a reversible lake of the Bajina Basta Hydroelectric Power Plant and its frequent oscillations are foreseen. The lake in the heart of the mountain was designed as a unique electro-hydrological undertaking to receive a greater amount of water that the river Drina brought to Lake Perucac. Water from Perucac, when there is no large power consumption, is pumped out with pumps and pipes, and it arrives at Zaovine. When the level of Perucac decreases and when there is a need for higher electricity production, the water from the "storehouse" returns down the mountain, directly into the hydroelectric turbines.

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(Telegraf.co.uk)