TIRANA, May 4 – The Albanian government has given the green light to a new big hydropower plant along the southern Vjosa River, defying environmentalists and civil society activists who staged protests earlier this year to protect what they called a unique ecosystem and the “Blue Heart of Europe.”
Under a decision made this week, the energy ministry said a Turkish joint venture has been awarded a 35-year concession to build and operate a 99.5 MW hydropower plant in the southern Vjosa River, in what is expected to be one of the country’s biggest HPPs.
The joint venture between Turkey’s à‡inar-San Hafriyat and Ayen Enerji Anonim Sirketi plans to invest about 101 million euros in three years and produce an annual 305 million kWh.
The Turkish consortium, which had been awarded a bonus for its unsolicited bid in mid-2015, was the only bidder in the tender on the Poà§em HPP held last March.
Last February, activists demanded the annulment of all concessionary agreements regarding the construction of hydropower plants on the Vjosa River and its tributaries, urging the government to declare the area a national park.
The course of the river is not only characterized by beautiful canyons, but the wetlands created by the river also provide a habitat for spawning fish and migratory birds among others.
“This is a completely arbitrary decision which fails to take into consideration the clear messages by the European Union, but also that of experts and civil society representatives in Albania and Europe,” Olsi Nika, a representative of EcoAlbania and coordinator of the campaign “Save the Blue Heart of Europe,” earlier warned.
The European Parliament in its draft resolution on Albania’s progress in 2014 raised concerns over plans for building hydropower plants in protected areas including the Vjosa River and urged the Albanian government to rethink its strategy.
Activists are convinced that the construction of dams on the Vjosa River will cause irreparable damage to the river’s ecosystem, which is considered as one of the last wild rivers in Europe. If declared a national park, Vjosa would be the first natural river in Europe to obtain such protected status.
The Albanian government has reacted to environmental concerns, saying that the Poà§em and Kalivac are the only HPPs that will be built on the Vjosa River and the rest of the river will be declared a national park.
