RIVER CHERAVA WATERSHED:
STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Oliver Avramoski, ALLCOOP, Macedonia

Natural resources in the Cherava River watershed form the base of economic and social development. Economic development, social progress, and environmental protection are inseparable. The central issue in achieving sustainable development in the Cherava River watershed is striking a balance between resource use and conservation so that a high level of development can be ensured. Water is the critical medium through which energy, elements, soil and pollutants circulate through the biosphere. Consequently, watersheds are thought to provide a holistic frame of reference in which environmental issues may be addressed. Watersheds provide a workable unit from a social standpoint also - everyone in a given watershed depends on watershed health for drinking water, flood protection, protection from toxic substances, resources, and other elements in the quality of life. Furthermore, watersheds provide a vehicle to consider the critical linkages between upstream and downstream effects. Therefore, watershed management has been widely applied as an approach to integrate and sustainably manage land, water and economic and social resources to upgrade human welfare in a quality environment.

Usually, watersheds are identified from topographic maps by connecting the high points and ridges and therefore delineating the drainage that flows into a river and excluding drainage flowing away from the river. From within these boundaries, the water runs over land surfaces and into stream channels when it rains, when snow melts, or during irrigation. However, water also seeps into and through the soil and underground, feeding the groundwater. Groundwater is the water that saturates the tiny spaces between alluvial material (sand, gravel, silt, clay) or the cracks in rocks. Groundwater and surface water are fundamentally interconnected. In fact, it is often difficult to separate the two because they "feed" each other. Most watersheds are nested within others and therefore watershed management requires a multi-scale approach. For example the Cherava River watershed is part of the Lake Ohrid watershed and the latter is part of the much wider River Drim basin. Actions in one part of the Cherava River watershed can have important effects on Lake Ohrid and even in another area downstream of the River Drin.

 

The Watershed of Cherava River

By using topographic maps we usually identify the surface watershed of the Cherava River. However, groundwater does not necessarily always follow the same watershed boundaries as surface water. Surface watersheds can usually be used to approximate shallow groundwater boundaries when specific information is not available. However, in the case of the Cherava River the mismatch of the surface and groundwater watershed is very likely to be the reality due to the unpredictable groundwater routes in the karstic zones of the watershed. For instance, the plain near the village of Blaca, is usually placed outside of the surface watershed of the Cherava River. However, it may be true that the rainwater that infiltrates through the topsoil of the plain recharges the aquifer that is connected to the Cherava River or the groundwater flowing into Lake Ohrid. Moreover, with the construction of reservoirs and irrigation channels it is possible to transfer water not only between different parts of the watershed but also from the Cherava River watershed to users in the neighboring Devoli River basin and vice versa. For instance, the water from the reservoir near Pretusha, sitting outside the Cherava River watershed, may be used for irrigation or diverted to other reservoirs within the Cherava River watershed.

The main challenge to watershed management is, however, the human boundaries. Watershed management is usually based on watersheds as purely hydrologic phenomena, depicting them as stripped bare of culture and political and administrative boundaries. Once we acknowledge the presence of humans we become aware of the fact that the boundaries of the Cherava River watershed encompass many political at different levels. The Albanian part of the watershed belongs to the District of Pogradec, which is part of the prefecture of Korca. Furthermore, the river crosses the boundaries of three communes: Dardhas, Cherava and Bucimas; the Macedonian part of the watershed is administered by the municipality of Ohrid. Finally, there are more boundaries, sometimes less visible, originating in the different religious, cultural, and ethnic background of the peoples in the watershed. The boundaries that people have in their minds and that are socially constructed may prove the most difficult to cope with in the case of the Cherava River watershed, particularly in light of the almost complete lack of communication across the Albanian/Macedonian border for more than 40 years.

The cooperaton between the different stakeholders from the two countries is indispensable if an integrated solutions to environmental problems are to be implemented in the Cherava River Watershed

Final conclusion and recommendation

No single boundary can adequately capture the diversity of interests, problems, and opportunities in the Cherava River watershed. Watershed management builds upon the concept of the ecosystem – the natural foundation of any human activity – that recognizes the nested, hierarchical structure of ecosystems. This means that watershed boundaries differ at different scales. The boundary of the Cherava River watershed offers a potential management unit for some of the environmental issues that citizens in the Cherava River watershed cannot resolve within the limits of the regional or national administrative structures. This is particularly true for those problems that involve upstream/downstream relations, e.g. the degradation of the water quality of littoral zone of Lake Ohrid near the mouth of the Cherava River. At a larger scale, the Cherava River is seen only as a minor part of the Lake Ohrid watershed. From this vantage it can be seen that people living in the Cherava River watershed can hope for greater markets for their agricultural products outside of the watershed, particularly if tourism around Lake Ohrid regains its previous importance. Tourism is largely based on the natural values of the region, particularly the oligotrophic quality of the lake, which in turn depends on the activities in the Cherava River watershed, at least to a certain extent.

When it comes to the issue of what actions to take, the same approach should be followed. At different levels of the hierarchical structure of the ecosystem in the region, there are different stakeholders with different roles to play. The administration of the communes in the Albanian part and the neighborhood self-government (Council of Ljubanista) are among the key players and stakeholders in the Cherava River watershed. Key areas they could act upon include solid waste management, public environmental awareness and fostering transboundary communication and cooperation. The legacies of the past, particularly the political isolation of the Albanian regime, have disrupted the connections between the people in the basin that were developed throughout the centuries. Watershed management demands unparalleled cooperation between citizens, industry, governmental agencies (state, regional and local), private institutions, and academic organizations having interest in or jurisdiction over the region and the Cherava River watershed in particular. The importance of stakeholder collaboration and cross-border cooperation cannot be overemphasized.