Onder een brede plataan nabij de Albanese grens met Griekenland, Jorgji Ilia vult een gehavende fles uit een van de vele bronnen van de rivier de Vjosa.

"Er is niets beter dan de rivier, ' zegt de gepensioneerde onderwijzer. 'De Vjosa geeft schoonheid aan ons dorp.'

De Vjosa is temperamentvol en wispelturig, veranderen van doorschijnend kobaltblauw naar slibbruin naar smaragdgroen, van een gestage stroom tot een razende stroom. Niets houdt het meer dan 270 kilometer (170 mijl) tegen in zijn koers door de beboste hellingen van het Griekse Pindus-gebergte naar de Adriatische kust van Albanië.

Dit is een van Europa's laatste wilde rivieren. Maar voor hoe lang?

De regering van Albanië heeft plannen in gang gezet om de Vjosa en haar zijrivieren af ​​te dammen om de broodnodige elektriciteit op te wekken voor een van de armste landen van Europa. met de bedoeling om acht dammen langs de hoofdrivier te bouwen.

Het maakt deel uit van een wereldwijde waterkrachtexplosie, voornamelijk in Zuidoost-Azië, Zuid-Amerika, Afrika en minder ontwikkelde delen van Europa. Alleen al op de Balkan, ongeveer 2, 800 projecten om rivieren te temmen zijn aan de gang of gepland - een "dam-tsunami, " zegt Olsi Nika van EcoAlbania, een non-profitorganisatie die zich verzet tegen de projecten.

Sommigen noemen waterkracht een betrouwbare, goedkope en hernieuwbare energiebron die de afhankelijkheid van fossiele brandstoffen zoals steenkool, olie en aardgas. Het Intergouvernementeel Panel inzake klimaatverandering zegt dat het "aanzienlijk potentieel" heeft om de koolstofemissies verder te verminderen.

Maar sommige recente studies trekken de waarde van waterkracht in de strijd tegen de opwarming van de aarde in twijfel. Critici zoals EcoAlbania zeggen dat de voordelen van waterkracht worden overschat - en niet opwegen tegen de schade die dammen kunnen aanrichten.

Rivieren zijn een cruciaal onderdeel van de wereldwijde watercyclus. Ze fungeren als de slagaders van de natuur, energie en voedingsstoffen vervoeren door uitgestrekte landschappen, het verstrekken van water om te drinken, voedselproductie en industrie. Ze zijn een vervoermiddel voor mensen en goederen, en een toevluchtsoord voor watersporters en vissers. Rivieren herbergen een diversiteit aan vissen, waaronder kleine witvissen, forel en zalm - en bieden onderdak en voedsel aan vogels en zoogdieren.

Maar dammen onderbreken hun stroom, en het leven in en om hen heen. Terwijl het installeren van vistrappen en het verbreden van tunnels om dammen te omzeilen, sommige soorten helpt, het heeft niet gewerkt in plaatsen zoals de Amazone, zegt Julian Olden, een ecoloog van de Universiteit van Washington die de effecten van dammen in Brazilië heeft bestudeerd, Australië en de V.S.

Dammen blokkeren de natuurlijke stroming van water en sediment, en kan schadelijke temperatuurschommelingen veroorzaken. Ze kunnen ook de chemie van het water veranderen en giftige algen doen groeien.

"Als de dammen eenmaal binnen zijn, er is bijna geen weg meer terug, ' zegt Olden. 'Je laat een rivier van water uithongeren. Het is niet verwonderlijk dat de bewoners waarschijnlijk zullen verdwijnen."

Degenen die langs de rivieroever wonen of voor hun levensonderhoud afhankelijk zijn van de waterweg, zijn bang dat dammen de Vjosa zoals ze die kennen, kunnen doden. Het kwetsbare ecosysteem zal onomkeerbaar worden veranderd, en veel inwoners zullen hun land en huizen verliezen.

"Het is net als bij mensen, " zegt Elton Pashollari, een gids voor raften op de rivier wiens klanten steeds meer aangetrokken worden door de wildheid van de Vjosa. "Wat gebeurt er als een van je slagaders, het stopt, bloed circuleert niet meer? Het is hetzelfde met de Vjosa."

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Van Ilia's plataan bij de Griekse grens, de Vjosa stroomt naar het noorden door smalle kloven voordat hij de stad Tepelene passeert, loom worden en verbreden tot brede grindbanken, de stroom splitst zich in strengen - wat wetenschappers een gevlochten rivier noemen.

Dit kenmerk is typerend voor wilde rivieren en is van cruciaal belang voor het lokale ecosysteem. Het creëert diverse habitats en laat sediment stromen, het bemesten van de uiterwaarden en het verjongen van de rivierbedding.

It is here that the Vjosa reveals another side of its wild nature. After seasonal floods, the river can change course, its braids re-forming along the deep gravel that serves as a filter and self-purification system. It skips from left to right to the center, across an area around 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) wide.

"A natural river is a dynamic river ... a living river, " says Nika of EcoAlbania. "It's living day by day and it changes its face. After each flood, you could never see the same scenery."

The river's ability to clean itself has proved crucial in a country where waste management is often rudimentary. Voor jaren, people have dumped trash in gullies that washed into the river, leaving trails of plastic and cloth clinging to tree branches. Some towns still dump raw sewage, but the river's self-cleansing means that the overall water quality is passable.

About 25 kilometers (16 miles) northwest of Tepelene, the riverbed narrows into another tight, steep gorge teeming with life, where birds swoop from trees anchored precariously in the cliff-face. Just beyond that comes the first sign of how dramatically a dam would affect the river and the life connected to it.

Emerging from the canyon, it looks like a strip mine. This is Kalivac, one of the proposed dam sites. An Italian company was awarded a contract in the late 1990s. Construction began, but never finished, plagued with delays and financial woes. It now lies derelict with guards stationed to prevent looting.

Half the hill on one side has been dug away, creating giant steps into the rock. Vehicles sit abandoned, a digging machine sunken into the ground, branches and debris clinging to its frame.

Nutsvoorzieningen, the government has awarded a new contract for the site to a Turkish company.

For Benedikt Baeumler, a German advertising executive kayaking the length of the river, the sight was a shock.

"I felt like there's all this wonderful nature, and then suddenly to see these stairs, like the Egyptian pyramids, " he says.

A few days earlier and several miles upriver, the 43-year-old had been ambivalent about the hydropower projects, noting his own country had also dammed its rivers.

But what he saw at the Kalivac site changed his mind.

"It was really unbelievable what they did to nature, removing entire parts of the mountain, " hij zei, setting up camp on a sandbar back in June. "I hope this dam is never built."

Many locals agree. Dozens of residents from the village of Kute, further downriver, joined nonprofits to file what was Albania's first environmental lawsuit against the construction of a dam in the Pocem gorge, a short distance downriver from Kalivac. They won in 2017, but the government has appealed.

The victory, while significant, was just one battle. A week later, the government issued the Kalivac contract. EcoAlbania plans to fight that project, te.

Ecologically, there is a lot at stake.

A 2018 study led by University of Vienna's Fritz Schiemer found the Vjosa was incredibly diverse. The team logged more than 90 types of aquatic invertebrates in the places where dams are planned, plus hundreds of fish, amphibian and reptile species, some endangered and others endemic to the Balkans.

But "the majority of the specific biodiversity will disappear in the case of the planned dam constructions, " they warned.

Dams can unravel food chains by reducing populations of insects that feed fish and by limiting spawning, which in turn leaves less prey for fish-eating birds and mammals. But the most well-known problem with building dams is that they block the paths of fish trying to migrate upstream to spawn. The U.S. Atlantic salmon population has plummeted, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in great part due to dams.

As pressure to build dams intensifies in less developed countries, the opposite is happening in the U.S. and western Europe, where there's a movement to tear down dams considered obsolete and environmentally destructive.

meer dan 1, 600 have been dismantled in the U.S., most within the past 30 years, according to the advocacy group American Rivers. In Europa, the largest-ever removal began this year in France, where two dams are being torn down on Normandy's Selune River.

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With so few wild rivers left around the globe, the Vjosa also is a valuable resource for studying river behavior.

"Science is only at the beginning of understanding how biodiversity in river networks is structured and maintained, " says researcher Gabriel Singer of the Leibniz-Institute in Germany. "The Vjosa is a unique system."

For Shyqyri Seiti, it's much more personal.

The 65-year-old boatman has been transporting locals, goods and livestock across the river for about a quarter century. The construction of the Kalivac dam would spell disaster for him. Many of the fields and some of the houses in his nearby village of Ane Vjose would be lost.

"Voor mij, the river is everything, " he says. "Someone will benefit from the construction of the dam, but it will flood everyone in the area. ... What if they were in our place, how would they feel to lose everything?"

His love for the river runs deep:It feeds his family by providing work and fish to eat and sell. He taught his five children to swim here. Elke ochtend, he runs down to the river just to take in the view.

Seiti has protested against the plans, but some of his neighbors disagree. The mayor, Metat Shehu, insists the community "has no interest" in the matter.

"The Vjosa is polluted. The plants and creatures of Vjosa have vanished, " Shehu says while tending his goats. The biggest issue, he adds, is that villagers are being offered too little to give up their land. He hopes the dam will bring investment to the area.

About 10 kilometers (6 miles) downriver of Ane Vjose lies the village of Kute, on a hill overlooking the Vjosa as it snakes its way north to the sea. Kute residents joined the lawsuit against the Pocem dam that would flood their fields, some houses and, crucially for many, a cemetery. Relieved by their victory, they now wait anxiously for the outcome of the government's appeal.

There are some signs in their favor. In augustus, the government announced it was canceling a project in central Albania's Holta Canyon near the town of Gramsh, and would tear down part of a dam that's already built. The Infrastructure and Energy Ministry said in a statement the decision came after discussions with residents and an environmental review. Energy ministry officials rejected multiple interview requests to discuss the Vjosa River and the country's hydropower plans.

Could the Vjosa projects also be stopped?

Jonus Jonuzi, a 70-year-old farmer who grew up along the river, still has hope.

He raised his children here and now watches his grandchildren play in its waters. Before dawn each day, he crosses a bridge over a narrow gorge to tend to his goats before his son drives them to drink from a local spring, where the water emerges cold and crystal clear.

"Everything I have, I have because of the river, " he says. "Albania needs electrical energy. But not by creating one thing and destroying another. Why do such damage that will be irreparable for life, that future generations will blame us for what we've done?"

© 2019 The Associated Press. Alle rechten voorbehouden.