The Pek (Serbian Cyrillic: Пек) is a relatively short river in eastern Serbia. It is a 129 km long right tributary of the Danube, [1] flowing through the regions of Homolje, Zvižd and Braničevo. The river got a moniker Golden Pek for being one of the most gold- bearing rivers in Europe, with some of its tributaries bearing even more gold.
It is known that the Romans exploited gold from the river and its surrounding already in the 2nd century and the industrial gold mining in the region has continued till this day.
River Pek is formed by two other rivers Big Pek and Small Pek and has a fairly calm course from the foot of the Crni Vrh / Black Peak mountain all the way to the Danube itself, into which it flows.
Its full flow begins at the place where it is formed – at the confluence of two sister rivers, Small and Big Pek.
The Pek drains an area of 1,236 km 2[2] and belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin. It is not navigable.
The river’s course is characterised by many elbow turns, similar to the Danube’s but on a much lesser scale.
Average discharge is 10.5 m³/s and the river’s mouth is known for the Danube’s inverse flow – during high levels, water from the Danube flows up the Pek!
Unfortunately, flowing through the mining and heavily industrialised areas, the Pek has ended up being one of the most polluted waterways in this region and possibly Europe due to the wastewaters from the Chinese held Zijin Bor Copper mine complex being discharged directly into the river.
As a crucial part of securing rights of Nature to heal herself, we have put together a unique and for the Balkans, pioneering environmental restorative justice process (https://www.euforumrj.org/en/environmental-justice) for this highly polluted river in cooperation with one of the world foremost expert on the environmental restorative justice Mr Lawrence Kershen KC together with his team members from the European Forum for Restorative Justice Working Group on environmental restorative justice as well as the local Serbian community represented by the organisation Nu Dau / Ne Dam.