The Jadar is a river in western Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

, 79 km long right tributary of the Drina

Drina

The Drina is a 346 kilometer long river, which forms most of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Alps which belongs to the Danube river watershed...

 river. The Jadar also gives the name to the Jadar region

Jadar (Serbia)

The Jadar region begins roughly at the Osečina and it is divided in two sub-regions: Upper Jadar , which is part of much larger region of Rađevina, and Lower Jadar, which is also part of another, larger region of Podrinje...

 of western Serbia.

River

The Jadar originates from the southern slopes of the Vlašić mountain, northeast of the town of Valjevo

Valjevo

Valjevo is a city and municipality located in western Serbia. It is the center of the Kolubara District, which includes five other smaller municipalities with a total population of almost 180,000 people...

, in the northeastern tip of the Podgorina region. Several streams flow south and join near the village of Osladić. Soon, at the village of Dragijevica, the Jadar turns sharply to the northwest, a general direction the river will follow until it meets the Drina.

The first larger settlement on the river is the regional center of Osečina

Osecina

Osečina is a town and municipality located in the Kolubara District of Serbia. In 2011, the population of the town is 2,730, while population of the municipality is 12,571....

 after which the Jadar receives the Pecka river (Cyrillic: Пецка) from the left. After the villages of Komirić, Ravnoja and Mojković, the river receives another important left tributary, the Likodra

Likodra

Likodra is a village in the municipality of Krupanj, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the village has a population of 874 people....

 river, near the village and former mine of Zavlaka

Zavlaka

Zavlaka is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Krupanj municipality, in the Mačva District of Central Serbia. The village had a Serb ethnic majority and a population of 962 in 2002.-Historical population:*1948: 1,487*1953: 1,547...

. The Jadar continues next to the villages of Brezovice, Radinac [where it receives another left tributary, the Rakovica River (Cyrillic: Раковица), Brnjaci, Bradić, Lipnica, Gornji Dobrić and Kozjak, before it empties into the Drina, near the Straža village, just south of the town of Janja

Janja

Janja is a town in the Bijeljina municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, administratively part of the Republika Srpska entity. Janja is located in Podrinje region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Janja is famous for the rivers Janja and Drina. Many people from Janja who now live in different countries...

 in Republika Srpska

Republika Srpska

Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

.

The Jadar belongs to the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 drainage basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

, drains an area of 894 km² and it is not navigable. The river is notorious for its floods which happen almost on annual basis. The section of the upper course (some 10 km) has been regulated in 1988, but the remaining 20 km until the Jadar's mouth into the Drina still hasn't. Only in 2005 the river spilled over 12 times (see 2005 European floods

2005 European floods

The 2005 European floods hit mainly Romania, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as several other countries in Central Europe and Eastern Europe during August 2005...

). The proposed project would also straighten the Jadar's mouth and make it 5 km shorter.