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Interventions in the Shkumbini riverbed, activist: Homes are at risk, erosion has severely damaged habitats
2026-03-18 22:01:47 / AKTUALITET
Meanwhile, here we are in Bradashesh, behind the waste disposal site where machinery is visible working on the riverbed.
The real massacre occurred in the Librazhd area, where 5 companies have been licensed to extract inert materials from the Shkumbin River, which they will use to build the 8th corridor that passes through this area.
"In Shkumbi we have seen the worst case of how the inerts of a river are exploited and how a river is sacrificed for the sake of building a road. Of course, we are not against development, we are not against infrastructure. We all want to move on good roads, live well as citizens of Albania and we want our country to be with international standards", said Besja Guri from the "River" Center.
Field observations show that the intervention in the Shkumbin riverbed has been arbitrary. In some places, there has been massive removal of inert materials, in some other areas, soils from excavations have been deposited along the riverbank, and in other areas, the riverbed has been diverted.
"The Shkumbini case is one of the most flagrant cases of how the riverbed is misused for the sake of development or for the sake of infrastructure. The way in which inert materials are taken, the way in which the riverbed has been diverted to take inert materials and then the deposits that are made, that is, the soils, the waste from construction on the riverbank, have formed mountains, entire mountains, completely changing the flow of the river, the riverbed and on the other hand damaging the surrounding lands," said Guri.
The consequences are obvious. The village opposite has collapsed.
Gëzim Shuli, who heads an environmental association in the Librazhd area and has been following the situation for a long time, says that the Shkumbin River is one of the cleanest rivers in the aquatic ecosystems in our country. According to him, as a result of the works, the waters have been polluted, threatening the aquatic habitat. Among them is the eel that lives in this area, which is a species in danger of extinction on the IUCN list.
"Agricultural lands are slipping, and houses are also at risk in many cases. Changing the morphology of the river body brings irreversible consequences. One is because if you dig into the river body, you will increase its rapids, making it even more rapid, and this will bring consequences on all the side banks of the stream, as we have seen with landslides. By eroding the river again, you will destroy the habitats of all living things that live there," said activist Gëzim Shuli./ Inside Story
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