The design of the Rovni Lake reservoir in the Kolubara District, western Serbia, is the basis for the regional water-supply system there. The design was promoted as an example of integrative and sustainable water management, with regard to the planned provision for long-term municipal water supply in the Kolubara region, as well as for the regulation of the downstream river flow. Hydrogeological analyses, however, have indicated three key issues that contest this sustainable water-management model: (1) the capability of the available groundwater sources to fully meet the drinking water demands in the region, (2) a pronounced risk of water loss from the reservoir, and (3) a pronounced risk of karst aquifer contamination. The Rovni project ignores the hydrogeological properties of a karst aquifer and thereby needlessly threatens the groundwater resource. Hence, modifications to the project are recommended in order to mitigate or eliminate the most significant construction and ecological risk factors and to improve sustainable exploitation and integrative water-resource management.

The Vic Bare groundwater source is used to supply water to the population and industry of Obrenovac, one of the municipalities of Belgrade (the capital of Serbia). It is a typical riverbank filtration site; exploitation is performed through 30 drilled wells and two radial wells located in the meander of the Sava River. The established hydraulic connection between the river and tapped aquifer is so great that the river regime has a dominant influence on the aquifer. As a consequence of this, water-delivery reduction occurs in the dry months (summer-autumn), when the population needs water the most. Based on the data associated with the river's gauges, precipitation, quantity of pumped water and groundwater-level fluctuation, a simulation of the groundwater regime for non-steady-state flow conditions has been undertaken through a numerical model. To overcome problems of water shortage during the dry season, the possibility of artificial recharge using an infiltration channel, made up of two connected parts, was analyzed. During the dry months, 80 % of the wells receive water partly from the infiltration channel. In this way, possibilities for extracting additional water are created. The application of this concept is discussed.