Idyllic is the first word that comes to mind when you look out over the Nisava River as it flows gently through the city of Nis, Serbia. City residents add to the charm as they stand there in their rubber boots trying to catch fish.

But beneath the surface the situation is anything but idyllic. Nis has no wastewater treatment plant, which means that whatever runs down the drains in the city’s homes and businesses winds up in the river.

Wastewater treatment in NisNot far from the river is Nis’s biggest tourist attraction – an impressive fortress from the time when the Ottoman Empire controlled much of the Balkans. Nis (population 250,000) is Serbia’s third largest city, but towering unemployment rates and just a handful of small companies means it is anything but well-heeled.

What is more, Serbia is controlled by a central government that makes sure the state takes the lion’s share of taxes. Serbia’s complex political situation only adds to the difficulty of the situation.

EU-financed projectNor is wastewater treatment high on the Nis city council list of priorities. So it is no wonder little gets done. The picture is the same in other cities in southern Serbia, but that is all about to change, thanks to an EU-financed project that has COWI as its project manager.

"Everyone is aware that this is an untenable situation for a country that is more than likely to become an EU member some day,” says COWI project manager Lars Gram Andersson. "Rivers have the capacity to clean themselves, but that capacity isn’t so great that Serbia’s cities can get by without sewage treatment plants."