Five residents of Vukël and Kozhnjë in Kelmend, together with the LUMI Centre and the Well-Point association, have filed a lawsuit with a request for interim measures at the First Instance Administrative Court of Tirana, to stop the construction of hydropower plants on the Vukël River – a tributary of the Cemi – inside and on the edge of the “Albanian Alps” National Park.
The lawsuit is directed against the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, the National Environment Agency, the National Council of Territory and Water, the National Agency of Protected Areas and Malësi e Madhe Municipality. The companies “Tamara Hydro Energy” sh.p.k. and “WTS Energji” sh.p.k. have been summoned to the proceedings as third parties.
The plaintiffs are challenging the “Ura e Tamarës” project, awarded as a concession back in 2019, which foresees a cascade of three new hydropower plants on the same river: HPP Kozhnjë 1 (1.9 MW), HPP Kozhnjë 2 (1 MW) and HPP Tamara (12.1 MW), with a combined capacity of around 15 MW. The lawsuit also challenges the authorisation and the water-use permit granted in 2010 and 2013 to the Vukël HPP, valid until 2040 and 2043.
Works on the river have already begun, yet there is no information board at the site, as the law requires, and none of the institutions has responded to the repeated requests for information from the LUMI Centre and the residents. As a result, residents are left in uncertainty, without information about the works that are already under way on the ground.
The lawsuit asks for:
- An immediate interim measure: suspension of the concession contract and its supplement, of the environmental approvals and of the water-use permits, and a ban on any works on the ground for the “Ura e Tamarës” project and for the Vukël HPP, until the court’s final decision.
- A declaration of absolute nullity of the concession contract and its supplement, of the in-depth Environmental Impact Assessment decision and of the Environmental Declaration, as well as a declaration of nullity of the authorisation and water-use permit for the Vukël HPP.
A national park threatened by infrastructure
The Vukël River is a vital tributary of the Cemi river system. Rising within the boundaries of the “Albanian Alps” National Park, the Vukël joins the Selca to form the main stem of the Cemi, which flows west into Montenegro, feeding the Morača River and the basin of Lake Skadar, an internationally protected UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (“Man and the Biosphere” Programme).
While existing dams have already damaged parts of the main Cemi, the Vukël remains the last untouched tributary in the headwaters. Building four hydropower plants on the same river, inside and near the national park's boundaries, poses a severe threat to the region’s high-alpine ecosystems, including vital habitats of the marble trout (Salmo marmoratus), an endangered species.
Impacts on local communities
Beyond the ecological damage, the projects threaten the Kelmend community's livelihoods. Residents depend directly on the river’s clean water for household use and for irrigating their farmland, while interventions in the riverbed could flood private land and homes along the banks.
“We are turning to the court because our homes, our farmland and our clean water are at stake,” said Niko Gjelaj, one of the plaintiffs from Vukël. “The Vukël River is the lifeline of our valley and a vital part of our natural heritage, and we will not allow it to be destroyed.”
“This lawsuit is a critical step in protecting the headwaters of the Cemi basin,” said Besjana Guri, founder and executive director of the LUMI Centre. “We are asking the Administrative Court to uphold environmental law, to impose the interim measure immediately to stop the bulldozers, and to declare these illegal concessions void once and for all.”
