Local activists in Albania are campaigning against a massive hydropower project in order to protect their home on the banks of the Black Drin River. For several years now, the Free Rivers Fund has been supporting the campaign “Stop Skavica – Save the Drin River.” This year – together with NRS – FRF helped them produce a short film about their cause to share their fight with river communities and advocates around the globe.
The Dibra Region & the Black Drin River
The Black Drin River is the longest river in Albania (Western Balkans, Europe), flowing from North Macedonia through Albania until it reaches the Adriatic Sea. Dams already mar large sections of the Drin; the only remaining wild and free-flowing stretch runs through the Dibra region: a biodiversity hotspot and vital ecosystem.
The Black Drin valley has some of the most fertile soils in Albania and agriculture plays a central role in local people’s livelihood. Fish from the Black Drin is an important food source. The lives of local people, their livelihood, culture, and heritage are tightly intertwined with the Black Drin River and the fertile land the river nourishes.
The Black Drin valley is also a quickly growing active tourism destination with several organisations offering rafting, trekking and biking tours.
The planned Skavica Hydropower project would flood several villages, displace thousands of people and wreak ecological havoc in the region. The people of Dibra have been resisting this project for over two decades and remain determined to defend their river, their land, homes, and heritage from destruction.
The Skavica Hydropower Project
With a dam height of 147 meters and a reservoir lake of 54 km2, the proposed Skavica Hydropower project is currently one of the biggest planned hydropower projects in Europe. The proposed dam sits in the middle of an important biocorridor, and its reservoir will flood several thousand hectares of freshwater habitat, forests, grasslands, and agricultural land. It would destroy the last free-flowing stretch of the Black Drin river, adding to the impacts of four existing hydropower plants.
The reservoir lake would flood 35 villages, approximately 2,636 houses, forcibly displace more than 20,000 residents, and destroy Dibra’s most fertile agricultural lands, pastures and forests that are crucial for the local communities. Even areas not directly submerged would become uninhabitable due to changing microclimates as well as the loss of productive land lacking water and nutritive river sediment.
If realised as proposed, the Skavica hydropower project would have one of the highest social impacts of any hydro project in Europe in the past three decades.
The Grantees: Dibra Activists
Albania is almost 100 percent hydropower-dependent for electricity. It is the only country in the Western Balkans where several large new hydropower plants have been built in recent years, and for several years its renewables incentives scheme only supported hydropower, not solar or wind. The government has, for several years, recognised that it needs to diversify its electricity generation but no considerate steps have been taken. Instead, the government and state-owned power utility KESH are still pushing the construction of yet more hydropower, with the Skavica hydropower plant the by far biggest projects among others.
The people of Dibra have resisted this project since 2002 and remain determined in their fight to keep their river flowing freely. The local collective Dibra Activists from Albania have been and continue to work hard to campaign against the Skavica project through legal actions, media coverage, community work, and by promoting tourism in the area. They have been able to garner a considerable amount of international attention and support of bigger environmental organisations by now.
We (The Free Rivers Fund) have been supporting their campaign Stop Skavica – Save the Drin River for several years: with an Emergency Grant in 2022, and as regular Grantees in 2023 & 2025. This year, in cooperation with NRS, we helped them produce a short video and a social media campaign to further their cause: keep the Drin free flowing.
Learn More:
To learn more about the fight to stop Skavica, support the Free Rivers Fund or the efforts of the Dibra Activists, visit: freerivers.org/projects/skavica/.
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Editor’s note: The Free Rivers Fund collects donations from adventure sports companies, kayak clubs, and private donors and distributes funds to conservation groups. Grassroots conservation projects seeking support can apply once a year. A jury carefully selects the projects where the funding will make the biggest difference for river protection. A project does not need to be a registered NGO or organization to apply; individuals who are ready to step up to help their local, endangered river are also welcome. Selected projects receive funding for a full year. To learn more about the Free Rivers Fund, or to donate, visit freerivers.org. For updates on the Skavica Dam, follow @Dibraactivists on Instagram or visit freerivers.org/projects/skavica/.
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Guest contributor Anne Stevens is a kayaker, raft guide and river activist. In addition to her work with the Free Rivers Fund, Anne is also very active with WET, with recent actions focused on petitioning and protesting to protect their home rivers in Tyrol, Austria, including the former Sickline racecourse on Ötztal’s Wellerbrücke rapids, from hydroelectric dams.
Photography and film courtesy of Slavko Nikolić.