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| Water plays a special role on our planet. Water gives life, enables development and creates new life. Water is part of every living being. It is the life energy of the Earth.
The flow of water from one river basin into another is quite important for the environment. Such flows exist from the basin of River Radika into the basin of River Vardar (through the Mavrovo hydro-electric plant) and from the basin of the River Bregalnica into the basin of River Strumica (from water accumulation Mantovo). Other flows are planned for the future such as: from the basin of River Vardar into the River Treska, from the basin of River Pcinja into Ovco Pole etc.). Basin - implies part of the territory where the water from the atmospheric rainfalls, from the underwater springs and sources flow together into the sea. In Macedonia such basins are: the Aegian, the Black Sea and the Adriatic. Only an insignificant part of the territory of the neighbouring countries (10%) belong to these basins. The Aegian basin comprises 87% of the waters of the Republic of Macedonia. |
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| The waters in our country are divided into the following categories:
Water supply needs:
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| Their distribution is quite uneven, thus the western part has more water. The average quantity of water in the Republic of Macedonia is 6.63 billion m3 water that flows into the basins of the following rivers: Vardar (4.77 billion m3), Strumica (0.18 billion m3) and Crn Drim (1.68 billion m3). The water level of the rivers is high in Spring and Autumn and low in Summer. These basins have more than 30 springs and the water flow is over 100 l/sec and they are the main sources for drinking water. The schedule of water resource utilization is the following: irrigational water 34%, industrial water 11% and water supply for the population 10%, while the rest is for biological minimum. However, the water utilization plan is out of date and not efficient, so the following problems can be mentioned: the biological minimum is not determined properly and it does not provide conditions for survival of fish, and there are certain disagreements in the Eastern part of Macedonia concerning water utilization. The Hydro-meteorological Institute is in charge of monitoring the water resources in the Republic of Macedonia. The insitute has several monitoring stations. Recent data indicates that in the last few years rainfalls have decreased. As a result, there are shortages of water and low water levels in the rivers in certain regions. The low water level brings about droughts and increased water pollution in the rivers. |
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Copyright© The environment of the
Republic of Macedonia |
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Waters are approximately 2% of the territory of Macedonia. There are about 35
rivers and 53 natural and artificial lakes. In relations to quantities of water resources,
Macedonia belongs to areas that have sufficient water resources. However, their
distribution is quite unequal. Rivers belong to 6 river basins: River Vardar - 20.535km2,
River Crn Drim 3.350km2, River Strumica 1.535km2, Dojran Lake 120km2,
River Lebnicka 129km2 and River Binacka Morava 44km2.
The
rivers belong to three flow areas: Aegean, Adriatic and Black Sea. The Aegean is the
biggest and it comprises 87% of the total territory of the Republic of Macedonia. Most
important rivers from this flow are: Vardar and Strumica. The Adriatic flow comprises
about 13% of the territory of the Republic of Macedonia and the most important river is
Crn Drim. The Black Sea flow is quite small, while the most important river from this flow
is Binacka Morava.