RIVER CHERAVA WATERSHED:
STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Oliver Avramoski, ALLCOOP, Macedonia

Embracing the lake: the plain of Ljubanista

Just bellow the village of Pishkupi (899 m a.s.l.) the river turns again, digs into a canyon between the hills of Vojtino (Војтино; 874m a.s.l.) on the east and Zganjes (931m a.s.l.) on the west and, crossing the state border, enters the wide plain of Ljubanista (Љубаништа). After passing 18 km the river soon meets the great water of Lake Ohrid, bringing an average 1.5 m3 of water per second. The underlay of the plain consists of a carbonate complex, made of water-permeable rocks, limestone and marbles. The rocks differ in their water permeability, and where it is the highest give way to strong karstic springs. This is the case near the Monastery of Saint Naum where about forty-five springs make quite a large spring lake. The average depth of the lake is 2 meters and the maximum is about 4.5 meters; the average temperature of the water throughout the year varies between 7°C and 9°C. The short river flowing from this lake into Lake Ohrid is considered to be the headwater of the River Crn Drim emerging as an outlet of Lake Ohrid, 30 km north, at the city of Struga. The discharge of the springs, fed by both precipitation and the Prespa Lakes, ranges from 4.0 to 12.0 m3s1, with an average discharge of 7.5 m3s1. The maximum flow rate is reached between May and June, and minimum flows occur in the autumn months (autumn minimum), or in the period between February and March (winter minimum). Precipitation observations at the Saint Naum stations show 888.6mm of rain during an average year.

The lower part of Cherava River watershed: the plain of Ljubanista

Originally, the Cherava River formed a wide delta in the plain of Ljubanista, having two main branches. The plain between the bay of Ljubanista and the right branch of the delta has an elevation between 693,5 and 694,5 m so the water from the stream of Ljubanista and the local springs accumulated in the past, giving rise to a typical wetland ecosystem. Most of it, however, was drained in the 1970’s. In the same period the delta of the river was also altered so that now there is only one regulated riverbed. In addition, a pumping station was built at the spring lake near St. Naum and the water was pumped out across the river for irrigation. 

Tourism and agriculture are the most important economic activities in this part of Cherava River watershed. The monastery of Saint Naum, situated on a small elevation between the small lake and the shore of Lake Ohrid, is one of the most famous tourist sites in the region. As a disciple of the famous St. Cyril and St. Methodious, Saint Naum, together with St. Clement, arrived in Ohrid in the late 880s. In 900 Saint Naum built a small church that was later supplemented by a monastery and throughout the centuries this place has become one of the most famous religious and cultural places in the region. Today, within the monastery of St. Naum there is a modern hotel with 6 double bed rooms, 21 double room apartments, 2 three room apartments and "residences", a restaurant with 150 seats, a conference hall for 150-200 and a meeting room with 50 seats. In the immediate vicinity of the Macedonian-Albanian border there is a modern military car camping area and on one of the two small islands in the small spring lake there is a very popular restaurant with about 100 indoor and 450 outdoor seats. Right beneath the village of Ljubanista the car camping area "Ljubanista" is situated covering some 10 hectares, equipped for 100 camp trailers with 400 beds, car sites for 2,000 campers, a restaurant, grill kiosk, grocery store, and a 1,500 m long private sandy beach.

A view at the Saint Naum Monastery

Agriculture is an equally important economic activity in the area. Most of the quality arable land is currently rented by the state to the stock company “Gorica”, formerly an agricultural cooperative. Most of this land was acquired from the church (nationalized) or after draining the delta of Cherava River in 1970s. Currently “Gorica” has 18ha of vineyards and some 50ha are used mainly to grow cereals (predominantly wheat), but also vegetables and fodders. Before 1990s apple orchards were a dominant crop of the company and a warehouse of 2000 m2 was build to for post-harvest handling and storage. In addition, in the attempt to expand its farming activities through livestock production, in 1980s the company constructed a sheepfold for some 1000 sheep. Livestock production however was soon shut down. In 2002, 18ha of the land along the left bank of Cherava River, formerly farmed by “Gorica”, were leased to the private farm “Jang-Ce”, also for agricultural purposes. The rest of the arable land is farmed by individual farmers from the village of Ljubanista, mostly as an extension of household work where members are employed off-farm. On numerous small plots individual households produce diversified crops for subsistence and sale and forage crops for supporting a mix of livestock.

Forests and forest plantations cover approximately 1000ha of the total area in the watershed. The total volume of wood is approximately 39,500m3; part of which is used for timber production. The forest in the area consists mostly of oak plantations mixed with other deciduous trees. The Quercetum frainetto cerris (87ha) forest community is found only on the left bank of Cherava River, while the Querco-Carpinetum orientalis macedonicum forest community is dominant, covering some 355ha. The forest community Orno-Quercetum cerris covers some 241ha and the rest is covered by Querco-Ostryetum carpinifolie (161ha), Ostryo-Quercetum cerris (77ha) and Festuco heterophyllae-Fagetum (70ha). The forest is owned and managed by the National Park “Galicica”.

Among mammals known to inhabit Galitscica mountain are the brown bear (Ursus arctos) the wolf (Canis lupus), a number of game species such as the wild boar, the European hare, wild cat (Felis sylvestris), the fox (Vulpes vulpes), roe deer, weasel (Mustela nivalis), polecat (Mustela putorius), badger (Meles meles), pine arten (Martes martes), beech marten (Martes foina), hedgehog (Erinaceus concolor), red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) etc. There are data indicating the possible presence of the Balkan lynx (Lynx lynx) and the otter (Lutra lutra) in the Lake Ohrid watershed, but it is uncertain if these particular animals are found in the Macedonian part of the Cherava River watershed.  Shallow water zones of Lake Ohrid in this area are important wintering place for water birds. For example, in 1998 nine percents of the water birds at Lake Ohrid are wintering sites in this area. They are particularly attractive for some species of the genus Anas and fish feeding bird species (Cormorant, Pygmy Cormorant, and Little Grebe).

The building of the local (neighborhood) self-government of the Village of Ljubanista

At the end of the field trip, in the town house of Ljubanista the team had a short meeting with the Chair of the Council of Ljubanista, Mr. Gjorgji Traeski (Ѓорѓи Траески), the secretary of the Council, Mr. Zdravko Risteski and a few other members of the Council including Todor Sotiroski, the president of the environmental NGO “Springs of River Crn Drim”, from Ljubanista. According to Mr. Traeski the village has 215 inhabitants, and 240 households (of which 176 are summerhouses), each of them having access to basic infrastructure: water supply (recently reconstructed), electricity, telephone, but not a sewer system. He expressed the concerns of his village about human health threats and limited opportunities to develop tourism because of failing septic tanks and because there is no prospect for building a sewer system in the near future. The problem with illegal dumping of the solid waste in the area was also mentioned as a priority issue. Among the issues of concern to the people of Ljubanista is the risk of floods caused by Cherava River as the river bed is currently overgrown with trees and shrubs and therefore has reduced flow capacity. There is no reported unemployment in the village; some people work in the tourist facilities in the area or the Collective farm of Gorica, but many find jobs in the city of Ohrid.

From what we saw during the visit of the area but not mentioned by the local people, looming illegal construction is one of the most important environmental issues facing the area. Since the designation of the Galicica National Park in 1958 there have been several attempts to construct summerhouses in the protected zone in the area, however, major disturbances were prevented. Unfortunately, the situation during the transition period is rapidly changing and an ever increasing number of houses and cottages can be seen in the area between the camp of Ljubanista and Cherava River.