For more than a decade, experts have been demanding the rehabilitation of the area surrounding the capital's watershed through afforestation, waste management and sewage treatment in the surrounding area, requests that have fallen on deaf ears.
Author: Antonio Cakshiri, Lorin Kadiu, Joel Cela
Lake Bovilla, from which hundreds of thousands of residents of Tirana are supplied with drinking water, is still exposed to pollution from sewage and urban waste from the surrounding villages, as well as landslides as a result of damage to the plant cover.
The catchment, formed by cutting the Tërkuza river with an 81-meter high dam in the mouth of Zall-Herri, is located in the northeast of Tirana on the border with Fushë-Kruja, spread over an area of 4.6 km2.
Its waters began to be used to supply about 60 percent of the capital's population in 1998 after a decade of studies and after the water treatment plant was built on Kodra e Kuqe near Tirana. The construction of the Bovilla Watershed and the water treatment and distribution network cost 22 million lire (about 11 million euros), a loan granted by the Italian Government.
The Center for Quality Journalism reveals that, although for more than 10 years Albanian and foreign experts have sounded the alarm about the need to rehabilitate the area surrounding the lake to increase the safety of drinking water in the capital, still the Ministry of the Environment, that of Infrastructure , the Municipality of Tirana and Ujësjellës-Kanalizime Tirana, UKT, do not have an integrated action plan.
Today, the terrain surrounding Bovilla's watershed suffers from erosion as a result of deforestation and unsystematic flow of streams, the lack of management of urban waste and the lack of sewage treatment in the surrounding villages.
According to experts contacted by the Center, the situation becomes difficult during the period of rainfall, when soil, urban waste and sewage seep into the lake.
Although aware of the pollution in the Bovilla lake, these institutions trust the safety of the water only to the processing of the plant in Kodra e Quqe. Experts, meanwhile, believe that even rigorous water treatment does not clean it completely, in cases where the pollution in the catchment is high.
Experts are of the opinion that investment in the water catchment is necessary, not only to increase the safety of drinking water, but also not to increase the costs required in the treatment plant for highly polluted water. They think that, despite the fact that the water treated and distributed to citizens' taps may be within the sanitary parameters, the cleaning of the catchment would increase its quality several times.
Studies remain on paper
Lake Bovilla is one of the most studied water basins in the whole country in terms of its biodiversity. The story of the increased attention of Albanian and foreign researchers to the basin began in the fall of 2001, when the citizens of Tirana were alarmed by the heavy smell and bad taste in the water flowing from their taps.
In January 2002, the government of that time requested the establishment of an inter-ministerial group, which would be able to identify the consequences of the pollution, after studying the Bovilla catchment and also the conditions of the water treatment plant.
After a few months the situation seemed to be resolved by adding activated carbon to the water treatment, but researchers continued to look for more sustainable solutions in such situations.
At the same time, civil society organizations also started to carry out their studies.
They quickly came to the conclusion that rehabilitation of the area around the Bovilla basin, dense afforestation and systemization of streams to avoid erosion, as well as the treatment of urban waste and the emergency creation of septic tanks for sewage for the surrounding residents, were required.
The Center for Economic Studies, SEDA, in a 2002 study came to the conclusion that through a financing of 2.2 million euros in two phases, the issue of pollution in the Bovilla basin was resolved definitively.
According to the study, with which the Center became familiar, with an investment of 1 million euros, the treatment of wastewater in the surrounding area was ensured, while the rest would be used for the most rigorous monitoring of the basin, the creation of a special laboratory together with an in-depth analysis of the water in the lake.
These requests were not taken into account by the government, just as the data were not taken into account of in-depth limnological study for the catchment, carried out during the period October 2005-September 2008 by a group of Albanian and Swiss researchers.
Aleko Miho, professor of biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Tirana, who participated in the study, told the Center for Quality Journalism that, despite the efforts, there was no evidence that the institutions took the findings into account.
According to him, it is extremely important to start work on intensive afforestation in the area surrounding the basin, given the many damages to vegetation caused by fires, residents and their animals.
"If I'm not mistaken, I have not yet heard of programs for afforestation of the basin and measures for the renewal of vegetation, especially this for the protective belt, also known as the sanitary belt around the catchment, which lies at heights of 320-400 meters above sea level", he emphasized.
According to him, liquid urban discharges in the area increase the possibility of water contamination with pathogenic bacteria and organic pollutants whenever it rains.
"I have not heard of measures for the collection of solid waste in the villages around the basin or of measures for the collection and decentralized processing of sewage in this area", he added.
[pullquote]"The Bovilla reservoir is polluted, as all the waste water of the residents of Zall-Bastar goes there. No septic tanks or investments for reforestation have been made", says Mehmet Metaj.[/pullquote]
Mehmet Metaj, director of the center Alba Forest, which has been supported by donors during the years 2004-2006 to make small interventions that improve the vegetation around Bovilla, emphasized that the pollution from the surrounding villages in the basin is great.
"The Bovilla reservoir is polluted, as long as all the waste water of the residents of Zall-Bastar goes there and no measures have been taken yet, no investment has been made. No septic tank and sewerage system has been made to avoid pollution and no other investment has been made for the reforestation of the surrounding hills and their systemization with mountain ambushes", he emphasized.
Blame at the doorstep of many institutions
Through the Right to Information Law, the Center for Quality Journalism asked the Water and Sewerage Company in Tirana, UKT, for information on the measures taken to increase water safety in Bovilla and investment plans.
Despite the fact that the return of the response is a legal obligation, UKT did not provide any response to the officially sent request.
However, in 2014, when the media denounced the serious pollution situation in Boville, UKT in a statement emphasized the diversity of institutions that were responsible for the situation.
"Protection of the watershed from the disposal of polluting materials and the cutting of forests is a task of the Prefecture of the Tirana region and the Ministry of the Environment.
The relocation of about 20 families living near the water catchment, as well as the equipping of the surrounding villages with septic tanks and sewage network is a task which, according to the government's decision, must be carried out by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure", the statement states.
"The afforestation of the area, the cultivation of fish, as well as the systematization of the streams are respectively tasks that must be performed by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment, these tasks have been partially implemented", she continues.
One of the tasks that UKT admits to having is the monitoring of the watershed. From the field observation made by the journalists of the Center, it was noticed the lack of safety elements to prevent the dumping of waste in the water. Apart from a writing written in paint on the wall of the dam, "Stop Police", no other prohibitive measure was visible in the basin.
On March 20, the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, signed an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, EBRD, for the expansion of the water filtration capacity coming from Bovilla lake.
He also talked about a new line, which would connect the Bovilla reservoir directly to the New Ring area, Yzberishti and Kashar, but at no point was funding for the rehabilitation of the Bovilla catchment mentioned.
For a decade, experts have been looking for the rehabilitation of Tirana's largest water catchment.
Maintenance, afforestation and urgently addressing the waste and sewage treatment of the residents who live there will not only increase the safety of drinking water, but also increase the efficiency of the catchment that supplies more than half of the capital.
