Bosnia and Herzegovina's Federation Parliament has amended a law under which Croatia's Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP) power company will have to pay a fee of €4.3 million instead of €1.8 million a year to the towns of Tomislavgrad and Livno in BiH for water used from the Busko Blato reservoir.

MP Petar Galic confirmed for Croatian state news agency Hina on Tuesday that his bill of amendments on redirecting part of HEP’s revenue from the use of hydro-accumulation facilities in the BiH Federation entity was unanimously adopted on Monday in the Federation’s House of Representatives. In order for the bill to be enacted, it needs to be passed in the House of Peoples in that entity.

The Busko Blato reservoir, once the largest in Europe, was created as joint project between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1970s with the aim of supplying the Orlovac hydroelectric power plant, which is now part of Croatia’s national electricity provider HEP.

City authorities in Tomislavgrad and Livno have for years been saying that HEP has not been paying enough in compensation for the creation of the reservoir which covered 5,700 hectares of land.

With the legislative amendments, HEP won’t be paying compensation exclusively based on the electricity produced per kWh but also based on the land that was flooded.

According to Galic, the increased compensation would significantly contribute to the “local population’s survival” and decision to remain in the Tomislavgrad and Livno areas as many locals, mostly ethnic Croats, have been emigrating from there for years.