The rain that does not stop on Tuesday, filling dams on the Drim River from which Albania receives a large part of the electricity, and observers expect that the rain will reduce the number of participants in the protests of the disputed Macedonia’s energy project .
“Alliance against the diversion of the river” gathered, and on Monday held a protest in Tirana on the news about the possible problems for Albania if Macedonia implements the announced project of diverting river Radika.
Then Petrit Vasili, vice president of the Socialist Movement for Integration Party that is part of the ruling coalition, has requested that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ditmir Bushati informs Parliament of this problem for a week.
According to the Macedonian project Lukovo Pole, Radika River water would be diverted from the Adriatic to Aegean Basin by building dam and new accumulation lake, and the Albanians fear that this would reduce the flow of water to their plants.
Experts from the “Alliance against the diversion of the river” are warning of the danger of earthquakes if Radika dries up, as well as of the potential economic damage because significantly reducing of the amount of drinking water would occurred in Albania, and by diverting Radika “Albania would lose 250 million kWh of energy per year,” transmitted the Albanian media.
Vasili claims that Macedonian project violates the applicable legal framework, agreement on Drim River, which was signed by Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo and Montenegro in 2011.
Protests will be held front of the building of the Albanian government, and they are encouraged by the media discovery of the letter from the Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the establishment of an intergovernmental working group to negotiate with Macedonia on the diversion of Radika.
And the opposition Democratic Party has asked the Albanian government intervention.
President of the Albanian government Edi Rama has already commented on the problem Radika on his Twitter and said that this is “a lot of noise for nothing” and that it “will not harm our interests,” but the opposition suggests how Rama’s first reaction was similar when it became known in mid-November that part of Syriac chemical arsenal could be destroyed in Albania. And then, the protests that have led ecologists led to changes in the decision, and journalist Hamza Hatika says it could be repeated.
Hatika, director of the Albanian portal kurajo.org, says that “the recent protests against the Syriac weapons were important lessons because Albanian citizens felt for the first time they could make a difference,” and that in the protests against the Macedonian project on river Radika “an important role will play inertia “.
“The rain may reduce the number of protesters, but the protests will continue,” expects Hatika.
Source; Serbia Energy See Desk
