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All the turbulent things about Vjosa as a National Park

2022-06-13 21:19:26Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA MERO BAZE
All the turbulent things about Vjosa as a National Park
Vjosa

An international campaign sponsored by Patagonia, a company that promotes the values ​​of nature and that has included actor Leonardo Di Caprio in the campaign, is yielding some results.

Today, the Albanian government, together with them, organized a conference in which they reiterated the need to declare the Vjosa valley a National Park.

This sentence has been heard several times and before.

Both parties pretend to listen to each other, but in fact they both know that it is not as we hear it.

The international campaign for the Vjosa, as a wild river in the heart of Europe, that must be preserved, has as its main condition that the flow of water is not hindered. So zero hydropower.

When the government hears this, it counts how many permits the previous governments intended to give, how they canceled them, but leaves unclear the key question, whether or not the Kalivaç hydropower plant will be built, which has been in operation since 2001, with permission issued since 1996, and which has already changed the developer.

I am not sure that the Government has the luxury of facing a second arbitration for that hydropower plant, which has become like the "Stone of Sisyphus", which never arrives in May.

A global energy crisis on the horizon makes the decision even more difficult.

It is clear that this decision has not been taken and the Government has no power to give an answer to this. The sponsors of the anti-dam movement in Vjosa have this main request. To compensate them, the Government is talking more and more about Vjosa as a National Park.

The National Park is a broader concept of protecting a territory, which does not hinder development and investment in the area, which does not conflict with the environment. It is not small if the Government manages to do this as well, but it wants not only statements, but also a lot of investments.

The main problem that the Vjosa valley has, one of the most beautiful river valleys in Europe, where for 70 km the river runs between the southern mountains, is that it is an inhabited valley and as such, if it takes the standard of a National Park , needs large investments to adapt the living of the inhabitants within a National Park.

The good news is that the World Bank can provide an 80m-euro loan for the sewage system of all villages and towns, from Çarshova to Mifol, to prevent it from spilling into the Vjosa. If the project is finalized, it is a big step forward.

Furthermore, for every settlement along the Vjosa, from Çarshova to Mifol, there should be a discipline of every stream or small river that flows into the Vjosa, to stop the waste dumped into the streams that flow into the Vjosa.

The culture of dumping garbage in the stream in Albanian villages is as ancient as our villages. We need to change that. In the village where I live I have been doing this battle for years, but still some, more ashamed to throw garbage in the bin, than in the stream.

The Vjosa is a river that if it rains for two days, can quadruple the inflows, but when the waters fall, you can all see an ugly sight, like in an Indian river. Plasma bags cling to riverside trees, mostly old plains, making the valley a national ugliness.

Educating the inhabitants of the area is an impossible mission without concrete investments for the Vjosa streams and without a strict policy of waste collection in all settlements.

On the other hand, as an inhabited valley, the Vjosa valley needs an urban identity and identity investments in the field of agro-tourism. And here we need to invest again in the infrastructure of town-villages along the Vjosa, which are often times uglier than anything ugly you can see in Albania.

You may be amazed by the mountain ranges surrounding the Vjosa, but not by the ugly roadside constructions, chaotic towns and once beautiful villages that are losing their identity.

A master plan for an urban identity of the Vjosa valley, based on historical tradition, but also enriched with modern elements, could make the valley an attraction of national value.

To make Vjosa a National Park, we must give it an identity, not only as the beautiful valley that God has given us, but as the valley we have deserved. People live there with the same chaotic standard as in all of Albania and its return to a National Park does not mean depopulation and their departure to turn it into a natural museum, but in a place where people coexist with nature, without destroying each other. .

The Government's commitment is somewhat pathetic in this case. It's a good thing to get this commitment, but I know it's very difficult to accomplish. It will take decades for it to be transformed into a National Park, where the villages along it will have an identity of being environmentally friendly and the settlements along the Vjosa will be a model of development, in accordance with the standards of nature conservation and non-pollution .

This could stimulate a new tourism industry, which could then completely change its history, but before that industry dares to develop there, standards must be set and above all, clarity on what will really happen to Vjosa.

Claiming the Vjosa to flow freely without any dams is a nice idea, which makes the river special, but it is now more a legal and financial issue than a political one. Politically, everyone agrees, even Ilir Meta who gave the permit for the hydropower plant, we are talking about.

But the Government's commitment to the National Park is a major commitment, which goes beyond wishing only for the Vjosa as a dam-free river. If the Government is to take it seriously, it must pave the way for the standards of such a vast territory as a National Park and sanction them with strict, immutable, and long-term laws, in order for any Government thereafter to lay down from a step further on this path.

And for this there is not much need for media sponsors or show biz characters, but for large investors and financial institutions which should standardize the coexistence of people, towns and villages, in a National Park.

I know that many people when they hear National Park have in mind a fenced territory, where forests, streams and rivers are preserved, but the Vjosa valley is not like that. It is not a Park where you can visit squirrels, deer, or bears, but a place where over 100 thousand people live.

We must protect the Vjosa from the people and we must also guarantee the future of the people from the Vjosa. And these must be said clearly, even when we are looking for a dam-free river, even when we promise the Vjosa as a National Park.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

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