Albania tourism boom sparks fight over river's future

A tourism-fed construction boom is underway along the nation's hundreds of miles of pristine coastline, and the new developments need water -- lots of it.

This has sparked a fight that echoes others over intensive development in Albania, which has welcomed investment after decades of deep poverty caused by communist rule and its chaotic collapse.

Locals are pushing back, saying plans to divert water to developing areas threaten their own economic survival.

In southern Albania's Shushica valley, a string of villages have rallied against a new project to pipe water from the area's river to a nearby development on the coast.

"The battle for water is the battle for our children, for our future," said Lulezim Bardhi, a former resident of Brataj, one of the villages, after taking a gulp of the Shushica's water.

"This water is our life and we will continue the battle to defend the river," Bardhi told AFP.

War of words

Nearby, hundreds of blue pipes are stacked at a construction site where work has been halted until an environmental impact assessment over the disputed project is completed.

If the project restarts, the pipes will be used to build a 17-kilometre (10.5-mile) line to transfer water from one of the river's springs to the Ionian coast, where tourism is booming.

Local residents are calling on the authorities to scrap the plan, first started in 2019 and financed by a 9.5-million-euro ($10.3-million) loan from the German state-owned bank KfW.

Brataj resident Sotir Zaho Aliaj said that similar projects had been mulled in the past but never implemented.

"None were constructed because of the social, economic and environmental consequences," Aliaj said as he unfurled a large banner over Brataj's stone bridge reading "Save our Shushica".

The 80-kilometre Shushica is one of several tributaries of the larger Vjosa River -- one of Europe's last undammed waterways, which the Albanian government bestowed with national park status last year.

The classification guarantees the highest level of protection to the river and its tributaries.

"In a national park it is forbidden to divert river waters. Such a project... would impact not only biodiversity and the ecosystem, but also the local economy, which depends on the river," said Besjana Guri of the conservation group EcoAlbania.

Albania's Environment Minister Mirela Kumbaro rejected the claims, saying the project did not encroach on a protected area.

"The source that will be used for the aqueduct in question is not inside the national park," Kumbaro told AFP, defending the government's plans to boost investment in the country.

"The Albanian government has not hidden its ambition to develop sustainable, elite tourism in harmony with the environment," she said.

'Blue gold'

Despite the pledge, pressure from conservation groups has been mounting for the government to act.

This month, activists from across Albania and neighbouring Bosnia rallied near Brataj's stone bridge against the project.

The demonstrators included "the brave women of Kruscica", a group of activists from Bosnia that protested for 500 days starting in 2017 to prevent the construction of small hydroelectric power stations on a river in their country.

"Taking water from us would ruin our future. It would be a disaster, the end of agriculture, the end for our livestock," said Ilia Bombaj, one of the protesters.

"This is our battle for survival."

Most protestors who spoke to AFP said they supported the country's economic development but called for the government to seek more sustainable solutions.

To add to the area's woes, others say the Shushica is being battered by climate change, restricting its flow to a trickle in some parts.

With more than 150 rivers and streams, Albania is rich in water, but poor management of the resource results in frequent shortages.

"Due to climate change one has to prepare for all the scenarios," Ferdinand Bego, a natural sciences professor at Tirana University, told AFP.

"The battle for 'blue gold' is the main challenge of the new millennium," he said.