RIVER CHERAVA WATERSHED:
STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Oliver Avramoski, ALLCOOP, Macedonia

Below the spectacular Guri te Kamjes

Below the spectacular rocky peak of Guri te Kamjes, reaching 1.461 meters above sea level, two strong streams emerge and merge near the village of Dardhas (986 m a.s.l.) to form the Cherava River. The headwaters drain down the hillsides covered with recovering oak forest with stems only 10-16cm in diameter and 11-15m in height. Amidst the steep woodland there are strips of pastures and formerly cultivated land -deforested areas created during the communist era program for food self-sufficiency. Though the erosion is not as severe as in the lower parts of the watershed, the water of the Cherava River soon gets turbid as the river runs past the closed coalmine of Dardhas. As Mr. Ditor Fraholli, the mayor of the Commune of Dardhas, told the Assessment Team, the mine once provided jobs for about 500 local people. To serve the mine a paved road was constructed connecting the village of Dardhas to the regional road Pogradec-Korca. However, the low calorific value of the local lignite and the very old technology used in the mine rendered it unprofitable so that in the late 1980’s the mine was closed. However, the legacy of the mine, the unprotected tailing piles sitting on the stream banks will pose a severe source of pollution of the water and the land in the watershed for many years to come. Due to lack of maintenance the road is now severely degraded, as is most of the rest of the infrastructure. The people of the communes face deep poverty. On the day of our visit the mayor was moving his office to a newly renovated building as a symbol of hope for new, better times to come for the people of this area. The community of Dardhas covers an area of 83km2 and includes only three villages (Dardhas, Stropcka, Sterkanj) with 2.459 inhabitants (according to census data from 1989).

Ruined facilities of the abandoned mine of Dardhas, below Guri te Kamjes (in the background)

Running down the road past the river to the next village - Stropcka, one can see piles of garbage everywhere. There are open ditches instead of sewers which discharge directly into the river. Running quickly downhill, between the Geshtenjasit mountain (1080m a.s.l.) on the north and the steep Beshirit mountain (1216m a.s.l.) on the south, the Cherava River suddenly slows at the Reservoir of Stropcka. The reservoir was built in 1989 as a flood protection measure and for irrigation purposes. Originally built to store up to 750 000 m3 this is the largest reservoir in the watershed. Over time the capacity has been significantly reduced because of the accumulation of silt and the reservoir has lost 4m of its original depth. Upstream from this reservoir, just before the village of Stropcka there is another smaller reservoir flowing into it. Through a well developed system of pipes and open channels its water was used for irrigation of the central plain of Cherava and the surrounding slopes. Though most of the suspended coal particles are detained in the reservoir, dissolved matter in the irrigation water causes serious acidification and pollution with heavy metals of the soil downstream. After the economic disruptions of the early 1990s, most of the irrigation system became not functional or is in complete disrepair. Our team visited the house of Mr. Nexhmi Shkullaku and had a short discussion with his father, Mr. Shaziman Shkullaku, a local community leader. He explained that most of the people in the area depend exclusively on agriculture. Though there are good conditions for agricultural production, he emphasized, due to the small lots and the lack of farm machinery the productivity is very low. He also added that most of the households in his village lack septic tanks and there is no water supply system in the village. The poverty and the lack of prospects force the young people to leave the village and move to the cities such as Pogradec, Korca and Tirana or even abroad.