Albanian Activists Mull Lawsuits to Stop Power Plants

Activists in the northern Albanian region of  Tropoja are preparing to submit lawsuits to halt the planned construction of hydropower plants on the Valbona river and its tribunaries, claiming it will destroy tourism in the so-called "Albanian Alps".

Catherine Bohne, an inhabitant of Valbona and head of Toka, an environmental protection NGO for Northern Albania, told BIRN on Wednesday that a lawsuit is on the way.

"We already started working with a lawyer and are now mulling the best way to get the hydropower plants stopped," she said.

Bohne, whose campaign is widely supported in Valbona, says that the process of granting rights to construct such plants in a designated protected area was filled with holes.

"We anticipate three potential points of legal attack and expect our lawyers to analyze them and advise us about the best way to proceed ... regarding fraudulent public consultations during the process, irregularities in the permit granting process or a civil court suit, suing the government for all future loss of tourism income," she explained.

Since February, environmentalists have been campaigning against the award of licenses by Sali Berisha's former centre-right government between 2009 to 2013 to three companies to build 14 hydropower plants in the area.

After several protests in Tirana and in Bajram Curri, the centre of Tropoja, drew support from environmentalists all over Albania and beyond, the activists say lawsuits are the best way to continue the protest.

On Monday, 40 or 50 inhabitants of Valbona attended a gathering and vowed to halt any attempt by the companies to start construction on the ground.

"We are not going to allow this to happen. We have agreed to carefully watch any development. The...