Sitnica

The Sitnica (Albanian: Sitnicë; Serbian Cyrillic: Ситница) is a 90 km-long (56 mi) river[1] in Kosovo.

In the 14th century, during the reign of king Milutin, a canal connecting the Sazli and the river Nerodime was dug, creating an artificial bifurcation, since the Nerodime flows to the south into the Lepenac river and thus belongs to the Aegean Sea drainage basin, while the Sitnica flows to the north, into the Ibar river and belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin.

The Sitnica was supposed to be the major part of the huge Ibar-Lepenac Hydrosystem, which was to regulate Ibar-Sitnica-Lepenac watercourse (including ecological protection, irrigation and power production), but the projected plan never came true.

The Sitnica flows generally to the north, as the main river in the Kosovo Field, on the western slopes of the Žegovac mountain (from which it receives the right tributary of Žegovska river, south of Lipjan), next to the villages of Muhadžer Talinovac, Muhadžer Babuš, Robovce (where it receives the tributary of Shtime river from the left), Topličane, Gracko, Mali Alaš and the town of Lipjan.

The Sitnica leaves the coal basin as the most polluted river in the area, especially notorious for its highly toxic phenol spills, which pollutes not only the Sitnica, but also the downstream Ibar and West Morava rivers.