10th Sava Youth Parliament

The 10^th Sava Youth Parliament, held in Belgrade (RS) between the 13 and 15 of October 2022, gathered more than 50 participants from the secondary schools from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It was organized within the Water Contingency Management in the Sava River Basin-WACOM project which is co-funded by the European Union Funds (EDRF,IPA).

The slogan of this year Youth Parliament was “Let’s manage the emergency situations”. The aim of this year event was to increase the awareness of people, especially youth, about the procedures and methods how to response and behave in the case of accidental pollution and floods thereby minimizing the danger to people, property, and nature.

The selected works:

• Biotechnical Education Center Ljubljana – Food School (SI), team Eko čuvaji
• Biotechnical Education Center Ljubljana – Food School (SI), team Poplava
• School of Economics, Commerce and Catering, Samobor (HR)
• School of Economics, Commerce ans Catering, Samobor (HR) – video
• Gymnasium Sesvete (HR)
• Secondary Vocational and Technical School Gradiška (BA)
• Mixed Secondary School “Hazim Šabanović”, Visoko (BA)
• Gymnasium Crnjanski, Belgrade (RS)
• Youth aged 19 to 25, team Mi Balkanci (HR and BA)

1^st day of the Sava Youth Parliament

On the first day, after the welcome addresses of Mr. Samo Grošelj, the Deputy Secretary of the ISRBC, the formal president Mr. Adi Zahirović presented the work of the Sava Youth Parliament in the past year. In his presentation he stressed the activities on celebration of the 1^st of June, the Sava Day when the round table on plastic and microplastic was organized. The participants from Gradiška (BA) presented the on-going project entitled “Can you hear our rivers? Which is implemented in cooperation between the Sava and Scheldt Commissions. Within this project the delegation a study tour of pupils from secondary schools to Ghent, Belgium was organized at the beginning of September. After the introduction of the WACOM project by Dr.  Primož Banovec, the lead partner the selected works were presented by the teams as follows.

• Center Ljubljana Food school Ljubljana (SI)- 2 teams,
• School of Economics, Commerce and Catering, Samobor (HR),
• Gymnasium Sesvete, Sesvete (HR),
• Secondary Vocational and Technical School, Gradiška (BA),
• Mixed Secondary School “Hazim Šabanović”, Visoko (BA) and
• Gymnasium Crnjanski Belgrade (RS).

Visit to JVP Srbijavode

In the afternoon the participants visited the Center for Flood defense Management at JU “Srbijavode”. After the welcome of Dr Jelena Dobrić the representatives of Srbijavode presented the flood forecasting system, the system of remote control of high dams and pumping stations, as well as development systems that serve to monitor the hydrological and hydraulic conditions in the Kolubara basin.

2^nd day of the Sava Youth Parliament

On the second day, the students participated at the tabletop exercise which was moderated by Dr. Primož Banovec, University of Ljubljana, Ms. Marijana Gubić Horvat and Tomislav Novosel, Croatian Waters and Ms. Danijela Ždrale, Republic administration for Civil Protection of Republika Srpska. The Participants were divided in three groups covering modeling and forecasting, floods, and civil protection.  They learn how to use the new WACOM tools in case of imaginary scenario of the accidental pollution because of spilling of diesel oil to the river.

The 10^th Youth Parliament increased the knowledge of the young people how to behave in case of floods and accidental pollution to ensure the effective and timely response. They got also the overview on the roles of the institutions involved in such events.

Election of the presidency

At the evening of the 1^st day the election of new presidency was organized. The members of the new presidency are Magdalena Živanović – president (RS), Muhamed Pašić (BA), Ema Milić (HR) and Blaž Lipovšek (SI).