Ardian Shehu

Initial plans for the construction of the newest hydropower project (HPP) in Drini River were halted and the design thoroughly revisited once Albania passed new laws on environmental protection and environmental impact assessment in 2002. The Ashta HPP will be the fourth and most downstream hydropower on the Drin River Cascade in northern Albania. The HPP was initially developed in the 70s known as Bushat HPP and some of the structures were built in the 1970s i.e. Spathari weir. The project included river diversion through a diversion weir, a headrace canal, an aboveground powerhouse and a tailrace canal discharging to the Buna River, some 4.5 km downstream of its current confluence with Drin River and Shkodra Lake. The Shkodra Lake (wildlife refuge shared by Albania and Montenegro) level would have been affected by the project which would cause serious impacts in health, tourism, fisheries and farming just to mention a few. Environmentalists alerted the authorities and the World Bank (WB/IFC) who in 2002-2007 revisited the design and developed an alternative that addressed the environmental concerns. The new design envisages a smaller scale HPP which avoids both river diversion as well as impacts on the Shkodra Lake. An Environmental Impact Assessment was prepared for the project. An analysis of potential project sites was included in the EIA where the IFC was involved in the site selection. Compared with other alternatives, this project site was chosen as it: • Keeps at a very minimum inundation of arable land • Has the shortest channel length, affecting merely a small part of the Drin River which is poorer and less valuable in habitats and biodiversity than other parts • Does not affect Protected Areas and cultural/historic heritage sites • Does not directly affect the Shkodra Lake ecosystem • Does not affect the quantity and quality of underground water • Respects international environmental standards for minimal ecological water release in the existing riverbed (agreed at 10% of the water flow) The impacts of Ashta HPP will be negligible compared with the impacts of existing larger dams and reservoirs upstream. With Ashta HPP the level of the Spathari reservoir will increase by 1.5 m, however mitigation measures will be in place to allow for fish migration and vegetation corridor. The Drin river body has been heavily modified due to human influence. The free flow regime of the river has been altered for decades, habitats were fragmented, and fish migration routes interrupted by upstream dams and the existing Spathari weir. The new Ashta HPP has put in place a mitigation plan that includes the construction of a fish pass, provisions for ecological water release, erosion reduction measures, and flood protection measures to allow for increased biological activity.