TheGuardian.com published a comprehensive coverage of the issue of hydro power across the Balkan.
More than 2500 facilities are planned or already under construction. Almost 650 of these projects are planned in protected areas, such as National Parks or Natura 2000 areas.
Conservations state, that dams and plants pose a fatal threat to biodiversity. Many endemic fish are endangered and with them the ecosystem of the river. This could also mean extinction for other animals, like i.e. the Balkan lynx.
Whereas the WWF backs the concerns of locals and river conservationists, it also supports hydro power projects in areas, where they don’t pose as much of a threat to an intact nature.
The Albanian government implies that the international pressure to realize these projects its high and that efforts to preserve the beauty of the landscape are valued. In Albania the Vjosa River is under threat. It is the last free flowing river in Europe, with also all the tributaries being intact.
Read the full reportage here.
