Vjosa - Kutë
Downstream from Iliras and Qesarat, the river basin narrows and flows through a gorge near Kalivaç village, where a hydropower plant (HPP) has been under construction since 1997.
In 2017, construction was stopped by the Administrative Court due to environmental alerts from numerous NGOs (EcoAlbania, RiverWatch, Euronatur and the Blue Heart of Europe campaign) and the European Commission.
In 2017, construction was stopped by the Administrative Court due to environmental alerts from numerous NGOs (EcoAlbania, RiverWatch, Euronatur and the Blue Heart of Europe campaign) and the European Commission.
© EcoAlbania
Planning for the HPP in Kalivaç commenced in 1997, when the Albanian government awarded the concession to the Becchetti Group, an Italian investor, which withdrew from the project in 2017 due to ongoing liquidation. In October 2017, the Ministry of Energy and Industry awarded the new concession to the Albanian-Turkish joint venture Fusha sh. p. k. and Turkish Ayen Enerji.
The construction of a hydropower plant is also foreseen near the village of Poçem, another location where the river narrows. In 2016, the Albanian government approved the concession for the Turkish joint venture Kovlu Energji, Ayen Enerji and Cinar San, which plans to build the second largest hydropower plant in Vjosa in the small gorge near Poçem.
The construction of a hydropower plant is also foreseen near the village of Poçem, another location where the river narrows. In 2016, the Albanian government approved the concession for the Turkish joint venture Kovlu Energji, Ayen Enerji and Cinar San, which plans to build the second largest hydropower plant in Vjosa in the small gorge near Poçem.
© Christopher Hauer.
The project envisaged the construction of a dam about 30 m high and 200 m wide with an installed capacity of 102.2 MW. The HPP would create a reservoir with an area of 24 km2 that would flood about 2,000 ha of agricultural land in the village of Kutë and other villages in the municipalities of Mallakastra and Selenica. As with the HPP plans in Kalivaç, those in Poçem were stopped by the Administrative Court in 2017.
If the HPP in Poçem is built, the agricultural fields of the village of Kutë will be flooded by the water that will form the reservoir. Kutë is located in the midsection and is known for its large gravel bars formed by the branching river. This gives the Vjosa floodplain an exceptional character, which is why it is considered one of the most magnificent river ecosystems of the Balkan Peninsula (Sovinc 2021).
If the HPP in Poçem would be built, the agricultural fields of the village of Kutë would be flooded by the water that will form the reservoir. Kutë is located in the midsection and is known for its large gravel bars formed by the branching river. This gives the Vjosa floodplain an exceptional character, which is why it is considered one of the most magnificent river ecosystems in the Balkan Peninsula (Sovinc 2021).
Wide and open gravel bars are home to many rare and/or endangered species, such as Cicindela monticola albanica, a rare beetle (Paill, Gunczy & Hristovski 2018).
Prosopistoma pennigerum, a rare mayfly, is another species that is very sensitive to anthropogenic and other infrastructural changes in the environment. According to Schletterer and Füreder (2009), this species has become rare throughout Europe due to sudden, mainly antropogenic environmental changes.
The village of Kutë has a long tradition of agriculture and pastoralism. According to local oral history the origins of the village and its surroundings date back to ancient times. Due to Kutë’s position in the river valley, it prospered in the pre-Ottoman and Ottoman periods when it was important for its agriculture. Along with the agricultural fields, the patrilines that own particular plots of land also carry an important element of social and cultural capital.
In the period of the communist regime, with its collectivisation, the patrilineal ownership of agricultural land was interrupted. In 1958, in the course of the agricultural revolution, the agricultural cooperative was established. Nowadays, elderly villagers born during the communist regime often nostalgically recall working in the fields with the pioneer brigades, building irrigation canals and transforming the riverine landscape into a productive area on the one hand, and planting trees along its banks and gravel bars in order to mitigate erosion on the other. Located on the river and surrounded by a rich biohabitat, Kutë was one of the most agriculturally productive and prosperous villages along the Vjosa Valley.
Although the communist system was one of the most draconian in Europe, causing Albanians considerable grief and resentment, there are still ambivalent feelings about it. Memories of the regime are both traumatic and nostalgic, recalling both atrocities and more secure times, respectively. In contrast to today, when society in Kutë, as elsewhere in Albania, is struggling with economic and political uncertainties, the communist past is remembered as a time that had a future.
Although the communist system was one of the most draconian in Europe, causing Albanians considerable grief and resentment, there are still ambivalent feelings about it. Memories of the regime are both traumatic and nostalgic, recalling both atrocities and more secure times, respectively. In contrast to today, when society in Kutë, as elsewhere in Albania, is struggling with economic and political uncertainties, the communist past is remembered as a time that had a future.
When asked about the river, people often talk about the agricultural fields and olive groves located along the irrigation canals where the river and the land meet and connect. In conversations, they describe the fields that provide food for their families and households, and the annual floods that inundate the fields. “But as the river takes, so it gives”, they often emphasize. In winter, with its heavy rains, the Vjosa takes minerals from the soil, but in other seasons it brings water and irrigates the fields and orchards, imparting life and vitality.
According to the older inhabitants of Kutë, the village played an important role in agriculture until the fall of the communist regime in 1991. And the Vjosa was an important source of the fertility, agriculture and economy of the village. In the first years after the regime ended, when Albania was characterised by massive migration, the irrigation canals and the road leading to the village gradually deteriorated.
According to the older inhabitants of Kutë, the village played an important role in agriculture until the fall of the communist regime in 1991. And the Vjosa was an important source of the fertility, agriculture and economy of the village. In the first years after the regime ended, when Albania was characterised by massive migration, the irrigation canals and the road leading to the village gradually deteriorated.
The once central and prosperous village became a remote periphery. The two-kilometre road leading to the village is now littered with holes and it takes almost an hour to reach it by car from the main Fier-Gjirokastër road. Over time, the village has gradually turned into a remote place on the Albanian map.
The once central and prosperous village became a remote periphery. The two-kilometre road leading to the village is now littered with holes and it takes almost an hour to reach it by car from the main Fier-Gjirokastër road. Over time, the village has gradually turned into a remote place on the Albanian map.
In addition to their nostalgic memories of the communist period, the inhabitants of Kutë often talk about current problems related to the construction of the hydropower plants in Kalivaç and Poçem, the completion of which, they often remark, remains uncertain. In particular, they cannot escape the fact that in 2016, when the Albanian government granted the concession for the construction of the HPP in Poçem, no public hearing was organised to inform them about the technical lake that will be formed on the location of their agricultural fields.
Apart from remittances from children living abroad, the land is the only wealth that the villagers have, as they often point out. In the period when the construction of the HPP was still in the air, it was said that residents would receive compensation of 0.50 cents per square metre of land. Yet, despite the privatisation process that has been underway since the fall of the communist regime, most villagers still do not possess legal ownership of a particular plot of land. This implies that they would not receive any compensation, which has created additional mistrust among the local population, who, together with NGOs, have organised numerous protests and petitions against the construction of the power plant.
Due to the wide gravel bars and dynamic hydromorphological processes, the villagers have observed slight erosion and seasonal diversion of the river to its right bank. Most of them attribute these phenomena to continuous dynamics. Constant changes are something that have long pertained to the landscape and people in the Vjosa Valley.
Dynamic processes are therefore embodied in people’s lives and embedded in the river landscape, which they described as part of their daily lives. But when these hydromorphological dynamics and associated changes suddenly encounter management, control and boundedness in the form of the HPP, this equilibrium collapses, leading to greater social and environmental injustice.
Dynamic processes are therefore embodied in people’s lives and embedded in the river landscape, which they described as part of their daily lives. But when these hydromorphological dynamics and associated changes suddenly encounter management, control and boundedness in the form of the HPP, this equilibrium collapses, leading to greater social and environmental injustice.
As the locals often claim, Vjosa has an ambiguous character because, on the one hand, they fear its dynamic nature, while on the other, they are fond of its vitality. “Vjosa is a wild but good river”, the villagers of Kutë, Qesarat and Iliras and Selenica often say. By this they mean that they have learned to live with its dynamic nature, its flooding in the winter months and the shifting of its course due to the large gravel bars. This ever-changing and dynamic nature of the Vjosa is part of their sociality and vice versa. People organise their lives around this dynamism – they migrated there over centuries (pastoral communities such as the Vlach/Aromanians, and other economic migrations), settled their villages mainly on the hills above the river bank and used the river bank only for agricultural purposes or grazing and not for transportation or fishing. In this context, the course of the river and its wider surroundings also changed but these changes were rather seen as continuity – here referred to as amphibious worlds – than rupture.
References:
Sovinc, A. 2021. Protection study of the Vjosa River Valley based on IUCN protected area standards, Belgrade, Serbia: IUCN. iv+40pp.
Schletterer, M. & L. Füreder. 2009. The family Prosopistomatidae (Ephemeroptera): A review on its ecology and distribution, with particular emphasis on the European species Prosopistoma pennigerum Müller, 1785. Aquatic Insects, 31(1), 603– 620.
