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Tourism in Gramsh and Holta Canyon
It is one of Gramsh’s natural monuments and most visited tourist areas, but for two months Holta Canyon has been a construction site. A company is building a hydropower plant, seriously threatening, if not the environment, then at least the development of tourism there.
In June 2016, under the Italian–Albanian Debt for Development Swap Programme (IADSA), the Institute for Habitat Development (Co-PLAN) began a joint project with Gramsh Municipality for the “Planning and promotion of investments for social cohesion and sustainable tourism development in Gramsh”.
Through intensive work, the project achieved at least one of its main objectives: “Promoting tourism in Gramsh as a new and undiscovered destination”. Under the hashtag “#ejanëgramsh”, meaning “come to Gramsh”, the fantastic scenery of Dushk Lake, Black Lake, Irmaj Castle, Sotira Waterfall and Holta Canyon became real tourist attractions.
According to the audit of “National Park Management” conducted in 2016 by the State Supreme Audit Institution, by the end of August Gramsh’s most interesting nature tourism sites had attracted around 1600 visitors: Sotira Waterfall, 702 visitors; Sotira Fir, 360 visitors; Black Lake, 382 visitors; Kabash Cave, 70 visitors; Holta Canyon, 60 visitors; Dushk Lake, 70 visitors.
For 2017, the National Agency of Protected Areas would report that visitor numbers had multiplied. Sotira Waterfall had 1617 visitors; Sotira Fir, 420 visitors; Black Lake, 843 visitors; Holta Canyon, 722 visitors, and so on.
Sotira Waterfall and Holta Canyon were two of Gramsh’s most popular destinations for guided tours. This year too, social media posts announced trips to these places almost every weekend, from early spring to mid-autumn, resulting in a real “boom” for tourism in the region.
Permits and construction of the hydropower plant
Alongside the work of Co-PLAN and Gramsh Municipality to develop tourism in this region over the past two years, others were also working, but in a different direction: hydropower development!
In 2016, the National Business Centre registered 3 limited liability companies, or shpk, with plans to build hydropower plants! “Klaudia Konstruksion shpk”, “AM-RES shpk” and “ERA-Hydro shpk” began their operations that year and, at the instigation of “ERA-Hydro”, undertook to build the “Strori” hydropower plant on the Holta and Selta streams. Despite their lack of experience, despite the fact that they had been active as businesses for no more than 1 year, nothing stopped these companies from getting the green light: first to study the area, then for the environmental impact assessment and finally, in April 2018, approval from the National Territorial Council.
Unfortunately, hydropower plants below 2 MW are not considered typical concessions and are passed through “without bureaucracy”. The plant being built on the Holta stream turns out to be one such case.
Construction of the hydropower plant there began two months ago. The works will last until 2020.
Reactions and the impact on tourism
The project, said to be worth 460 million lek, provoked immediate reactions as soon as the first photographs were published. But the Energy Ministry was quick to say that “the hydropower plant does not affect natural monuments”.
By publishing a series of documents (some of which bear the name of environmental engineer Ekrem Xhafëri, administrator of “AM-RES”, the company designing and supervising the project), the attempt was to argue that the hydropower plant does not “affect a natural monument” and therefore has no environmental impact. Perhaps that is true, perhaps yes, perhaps no. But what nobody can deny is the impact this development will have on tourism. Because the construction works there over the next two years will have an impact, and how!
What are the most common environmental impacts during the construction of a hydropower plant?
Experience of hydropower construction in other areas has already shown that a hydropower construction site, and the work of building in a riverbed, cause changes to the land’s topography, solid-waste pollution, dust generation, pollution of the air, water and groundwater with various forms of sludge, noise pollution, high noise levels for animals, and the fragmentation or isolation of natural habitats.
With construction now set to become even more intensive along Holta Canyon, tourism will hardly retain the same momentum it has had over the past two years, when visitor numbers multiplied.
This hydropower plant once again demonstrates the emptiness of Albania’s policies on sustainable development today. On one side, large sums are spent to initiate and develop projects intended to promote tourism. On the other, a free hand is given to the continual construction of hydropower schemes. The same is true of Valbona and many other cases.
Meanwhile, it should be said that “ERA-Hydro” has applied for the green light for another hydropower plant, also in Gramsh, in the village of Shëmrizë farther south, along the catchment of the Tomorrica River, a tributary of the Devoll. The plant is called Blineta Hydropower Plant!