One of Europe's last untamed rivers is threatened by dams

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One of Europe’s last wild rivers is in danger of being dammed to generate much-needed electricity for Albania.

https://apnews.com/f20445a5602c4793b722f9a015825b7a

It’s part of a world hydropower boom, mainly in Southeast Asia, South America, Africa and less developed parts of Europe. In the Balkans alone, about 2,800 projects to tame rivers are underway or planned — a “dam tsunami,” says Olsi Nika of EcoAlbania, a nonprofit that opposes the projects. But dams interrupt their flow, and the life in and around them. While installing fish ladders and widening tunnels to bypass dams helps some species, it hasn’t worked in places like the Amazon, says Julian Olden, a University of Washington ecologist who has studied the impacts of dams in Brazil, Australia and the U.S.

“It’s like humans,” says Elton Pashollari, a river rafting guide whose clients are increasingly attracted by the Vjosa’s wildness. “What happens if one of your arteries, it stops, blood doesn’t circulate anymore? It’s the same thing with the Vjosa.

The river’s ability to clean itself has proved crucial in a country where waste management is often rudimentary. For years, people have dumped trash in gullies that washed into the river, leaving trails of plastic and cloth clinging to tree branches. Some towns still dump raw sewage, but the river’s self-cleansing means that the overall water quality is passable.

“I felt like there’s all this wonderful nature, and then suddenly to see these stairs, like the Egyptian pyramids,” he says. But “the majority of the specific biodiversity will disappear in the case of the planned dam constructions,” they warned. “Science is only at the beginning of understanding how biodiversity in river networks is structured and maintained,” says researcher Gabriel Singer of the Leibniz-Institute in Germany. “The Vjosa is a unique system.”The 65-year-old boatman has been transporting locals, goods and livestock across the river for about a quarter century. The construction of the Kalivac dam would spell disaster for him. Many of the fields and some of the houses in his nearby village of Ane Vjose would be lost.

 

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The green revolution

Enver Hoxha's legacy of poverty.

Oh sure, it's always easy to blame Albania

Time for more creative energy engineering. I think we already have the supplies we need but we need to re-engineer and advance our electric generating technologies.

Perhaps solar and wind would be a good alternative for your beautiful country. This will have less impact on the ecosystem and still allows you to thrive. Sustainable ecoculture can lead to a green future for all our people AlMissionUN EuronewsAlbania UN CanadianGreens

in danger WTF

Absolutely gorgeous pictures, to go with such a tragic story. felipedana thank you for this.

calm down s8n

Our mission at is to build the social news network that ends fake news. Follow us Overlooked_Inc

What danger is that?!?

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