Author: Ardit Hoxha, Diana Kruzman, Margaux Maxwell, Shelby Grebbin
In the Kune-Vain lagoon in northern Albania, a grim relic dives into the past to reveal an even more uncertain future. Concrete bunkers dotting the coastline, built by the small Balkan country as bomb shelters during the communist era, have for decades stood as reminders of a strong totalitarian regime, but in recent years have begun to disappear - devouring one of one of the coastlines that every year, advancing, takes more and more land.
The coastline of the Kunes lagoon was formed mainly by the accumulation of sediments from the river Drin, the longest river in Albania. But Albania's dependence on hydropower plants that generate nearly 100% of the country's energy has led to the damming of many rivers that flow on this coast, thus raising great concerns. The sediments that accumulate near the rivers are locked inside these dams, unable to follow the water to the sea and thus preventing the formation of the coastline.
A two-month investigation by Albanian Center for Quality Journalism in collaboration with Center of New England for Investigative Reporting, in the US, revealed that in recent years the Albanian government has approved the construction of hundreds of HPPs in the country, despite critics' warnings that these hydropower plants are accelerating coastal erosion and putting vulnerable residents at risk.
According to the National Agency of Natural Resources, the Albanian government has approved the construction of 338 HPPs between 2002 and 2017. Environmentalists still fear that the projects will cause significant damage to the coastline.
"If you block the transport of sediments in the river, they cannot reach the sea and cannot create or maintain the necessary balance between sediments and erosion," said Olsi Nika, executive director of EcoAlbania-s, a non-governmental organization located in Tirana.
At the same time, Kunes beach and others along the coastline of the country of 362 kilometers are increasingly threatened by erosion.
The coast of Kuna has lost 400 meters since 2000, while sea level rise caused by climate change paints an even more shocking picture for the future.
And as the country continues to expand its reliance on hydropower, environmentalists are accusing the government of valuing profits over environmental protection, while urging Albania to diversify its energy sources.
Ecological limits of hydropower plants
To generate power, water flowing along a river passes through a turbine located below the surface. The river must move with sufficient speed and volume to circulate rotor, so that the magnets inside the turbine generator produce the power, which is widely considered to be one of the cleanest and lowest cost energy solutions in the world.
Albania's abundant water resources and long coastline across the Adriatic and Ionian seas have allowed the small European country to rely mainly on hydroelectric power as its primary energy source, relying on the country's water flows for about 98% of its energy. according to Albanian Investment Council.
But this form of renewable energy has also raised some alarms.
"The first ecosystem that will be affected by this process is the coastal lagoons," said Nika.
Edvin Pacara, the executive director of Environmental Policy Institute in Albania, it recalls a coastal landscape very different from the current one in the lagoon of Kunes.
"I remember 10 years ago, when I was walking here and to my left I had a concrete building, and about 100 meters to the right bunkers, while now the bunkers have disappeared into the sea", - said Pacara.
Environmentalists have been photographing the shrinking coastline, hoping to secure one grant that would fund scientific research and monitoring of the area.
"The problem is multiple," says Pacara. "The main cause of erosion is certainly climate change, but a large percentage of it is also happening because of dams."
Oceans on land have risen at an average rate of 3.2 mm per year since 1993, according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration, an independent agency of the United States federal government, and predicts that tides will rise even faster as high temperatures release water that has been held in the polar ice caps. But on land, damming rivers to create hydroelectric dams has reduced the flow of small stones, sand and gravel from the mountains to the seas – meaning there is nothing to hold the shore as the sea advances.
While funding for scientific research in this field has been scarce in Albania, other countries have felt the impact of dams on coastal erosion. In nearby Greece, the construction of two large dams on the river Nevor has reduced the supply of sediment to the coast by 60%, according to a 2012 study in the publication Ecohydrology and Hydrobiology.
A search for profitability
Currently, there are no stable statistics on how many planned and functional HPPs exist in Albania. Several government and private agencies provide conflicting data, but the most recent assessment – a report by EcoAlbania-s in April 2017– counts 44 existing HPPs. The NGO says the government granted concessions for another 114 HPPs in 2009 and 203 more in 2013.
"The coordination of institutions with roles and responsibilities in the management of natural resources is fragmented within several institutions, - emphasizes one report of the year 2018 of the United Nations Development Program (UNPD), in Albania.
"A consolidated database on water use, including the location and status of HPPs, has not yet been established."
This lack of coordinated statistics, regulation and transparency, UNDP claims, shows that the government values profit more than environmental protection.
"The development of HPPs is strongly driven by the demand for energy and the growth of private investments, supported by financial incentives. HPPs are not developed on the basis of a balanced planning system", - declares a UNDP report.
Currently, three major dams on the Drin River provide the majority of electricity in Albania, produced 1350 MW out of 1500 MW that is roughly operational capacity. But hundreds of new hydroelectric plants would increase total capacity to at least 5000 MW, according to an analysis by EcoAlbania-s.
Demand for energy in Albania is expected to increase by 60% in 2020, according to the International Hydropower Association, but the country also aims to sell its power to the European market, as stated the Albanian Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Damian Gjiknuri, in March of this year.
The Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, responsible for approving hydropower licenses and environmental impact assessments, did not respond to requests for comment on whether corruption was a motive in giving the green light to these hydropower plants.
Plans for the construction of small hydropower plants increased under the government of the former prime minister, Sali Berisha, who personally inaugurated a hydropower plant in 2012.
"Every comment against the hydropower plant has only bad intentions and cynical greed, which stems from narrow party interests or business interests," Berisha said at the time. FOR Top Channel. - I guarantee you that the race for the concession was and will be one of the most important chapters in the history of the Albanian market, which will turn Albania into a small superpower in the region".
Controversies have followed the development of many hydropower plants in the country.
In 2011, former prime minister – and current president – Ilir Meta appeared to was embroiled in a corruption scandal which included a videotape purporting to show him demanding that the concession be given to a specific company in exchange for a bribe. Albanian experts they denounced the video as fake, while British and American experts declared the video to be authentic.
In the end, Meta was acquitted, but activists like Nika still believe that bribes play a major role in the granting of hydropower concessions.
"There is no other way to get energy that damages the environment more than hydropower plants," said Nika. - I am completely convinced of this".
Working against the flow
Not all Albanian experts agree that hydropower plants contribute to coastal erosion. Some officials, such as Violeta Zuna, a project manager at the United Nations Development Program, attribute the erosion to urban development, deforestation and the use of sand for construction rather than uncontrolled hydropower construction.
Zuna led one 5-year campaign in Albania for the protection of biodiversity in coastal areas, which she says are threatened by the disappearance of the coastline.
"Because we are a poor country, people are more interested in seeing development and quick benefits," Zuna said. – In the environment, you protect nature and species for future generations. This means that there is no immediate benefit - it takes more time and is not a direct economic benefit."
But Albania's dependence on hydropower plants has already caused problems for some residents. In December 2017, the government was forced to build replacement housing for people displaced by the construction of the Moglica HPP in the small town of Maliqi in eastern Albania. The construction of the hydroelectric plant caused major floods. Other communities, like the one near Pocem, are actively fighting hydropower companies, fearing that their construction will flood homes and crops.
"We must find a balance between economic development and environmental protection", said Zuna.
Fish and other coastal species are also at risk from shoreline erosion. The Albanian Ministry of Environment - which in one 2015 document cites dam building as one of the threats to the country's biodiversity – worked with UNDP to establish Marine Protected Areas, which would be kept intact. But these zones cannot stop the impact that construction on land has on the coast.
"The unbalanced development of hydropower plants is expected to result in harmful consequences, such as the loss of habitats and biodiversity species, deforestation, water scarcity and erosion", - says a February report by UNDP in Albania.
Uncertain future
For people living along the coast erosion means that their homes and livelihoods are threatened. Fishermen in Kune cannot secure as many fish as they used to catch.
"We have a lot of problems because we can't find the habitats of the fish," said a local fisherman in Kune, who asked not to be named. - In the last 10 years we have had less fish".
The future of Albania as a state based on the power of hydropower plants is uncertain. With the changing climate, rainfall in the country is expected to drop by 30% by 2040, according to Nika from EcoAlbania, which would make it difficult to generate electricity, at a time when the country would have hundreds more hydropower plants than it has now.
"If there is such a change in the climate that, for example, the rainfall decreases in the main area of the river, then there would be less water flow, which means less generating capacity," said Dr. Donald R. Sadoway, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Pacara, from the Environmental Policy Institute, hopes that the country will turn to other sources of renewable energy, such as solar or wind power, instead of continuing to stick to hydropower plants.
Meanwhile, ongoing erosion caused by human activity means that the bunkers that stand on Kune's coast could be completely swallowed up by the sea.
"If the sea advances by 100 meters in just 10 years, you can imagine what will happen in 20 years," said Pacara, pointing to a sand dune. "Most likely, this sandy beach will disappear."
Photo at the beginning of the article: Communist-era bunker submerged on the coast of Kune, Tuesday, June 5, 2018. Photo: Margaux Maxwell
