Government of Republic of Srpska (RS) in 2004 planned to make 2 hydro power plants (HPP) on Vrbas River, 15 and 25 kilometres upstream of Banja Luka. Public got information in late October 2004, about 5 days before Parliament of RS had to take decision on the project. Few NGOs decided to inform the public about possible impacts and in 3 days managed to collect more than 5500 signatures of Banja Luka citizens, with the goal to postpone Parliament's decision, but without success. In November 2004, the Government signed the concession contract with company HES Vrbas. In the same time, about 10 local NGOs established Coalition for Vrbas River Protection, that grew up to 36 NGOs in 2005. Soon after the contract was signed, the Coalition started to collect signatures for local referendum on this issue, and managed to reach almost 20 000 signatures in city of about 200 000 inhabitants. This was enough to push the Parliament of Banja Luka to take position against the projects in 2005. After that, both Government of RS and the company HES Vrbas withdrew their plans, as people and local government spoke against the project.