REPUBLISHED

Tourism through pipes: Hydropower plants threaten the Cem River

Erblin Vukaj · Originally published: 24 April 2026

The Cem River, one of the most treasured rivers in the Alps, whose water has sustained life and residents’ hopes of developing tourism, risks being diverted into pipes by several hydropower projects.

Three projects were completed between 2017 and 2022. Residents have opposed a fourth, while another six are under discussion. Faced with this pressure, the local community endures power shortages, impassable roads and a form of development that seems to overlook it.

Two realities along the same river

Temperatures in the Cem valley had already risen by mid-April, and the first groups of tourists had begun seeking the cool mountain air. But in Tamarë and beyond, around 170 kilometres north of Tirana, residents say the electricity often goes out, even in the middle of the tourist season.

The outages come without warning, sometimes lasting for hours. An area promoted for years as a distinctive tourist destination still lacks a reliable electricity supply. A generator remains the solution.

Yet the residents’ optimism is undiminished. At the restaurant where we stopped in the centre of Tamarë, the table was full, although, according to one of the young women serving us, most of the produce had been used up over the Easter weekend.

But around 10 kilometres further on, towards Vukël and Nikç, the atmosphere changed completely. This area, with its extraordinary scenery, is separated by just one mountain from the internationally known Theth valley, which, alongside Valbonë, is one of the Alps’ two main tourist destinations.

The asphalt ended immediately after the first bend. Stones, potholes, major landslides and not a car in sight. In some stretches, cars could not get through. Large rocks, gravel and unfinished works turned the journey into a dangerous ordeal.

A €1.5 million project, begun in May 2024 and undertaken by the company “Vëllezërit Hysa”, appeared abandoned. It was due to finish in November 2024, but today, around two years after work began, there is no longer any sign of activity on the site.

Between these two realities, darkness in an area with hydropower plants and isolation in an area awaiting development, flow the two branches of the Cem River.

Two “streams” of conflict

The Cem rises in the alpine heights of Kelmend in Malësi e Madhe. Its branches meet in Tamarë, where the Cem of Vukël and the Cem of Selcë form a single river that continues towards Montenegro.

For decades, the area’s isolation protected the river from major urban and industrial interventions. But since 2017, that untouched condition has come under serious threat.

Just 1.5 kilometres from Tamarë, heading north towards Selcë, the river disappeared from view because of the “HEC Murasi” hydropower plant. Around 6 kilometres further on, “HEC Dobrinjë” and “HEC Selca” diverted part of the flow into pipes.

Besjana Guri, director of the LUMI centre and a winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize for the campaign to protect the Vjosa, said that 5 kilometres beyond, between the villages of Mreg and Ostriç, residents had opposed “HEC Vriela”, but the possibility of this project going ahead could not be ruled out either.

On paper, these four hydropower plants have a small combined capacity, around 7–8 MW. Yet they are connected to a wider network of interests, as their developers are involved in partnerships with other energy companies, such as “United Energji” and “Miculi Energji”.

Meanwhile, on the Vukël branch in southern Kelmend, the projects can still be stopped.

Three more hydropower plants, part of the “Ura e Tamarës” complex, have been proposed between Kozhinjë and Vukël by “Tamara Hydro Energy”. The company belongs to the “Albavia” group, known as a major contractor on public infrastructure projects. The proposal envisages a total installed capacity of around 15 MW.

According to the project’s non-technical summary (pp. 10, 12–13 and 36), the planned ecological flows are around 0.8 m³/s for Kozhnjë 1, around 0.1 m³/s for Kozhnjë 2 and around 1 m³/s for Tamara. These are design parameters for each hydropower plant.

In practice, according to environmental activist Besjana Guri, this means that entire stretches of the river would remain almost dry during periods without rainfall.

She says the project is problematic because the Vukël area is also part of the Alps National Park. “Tamara Hydro Energy” has recently obtained its environmental permit and appears determined to carry out the project.

The public consultation process also raises questions. A hearing held last year by “Tamara Hydro Energy” had only 8 participants. But for residents, this is no abstract issue.

“The water and the mountain are everything here,” a Vukël resident told us, welcoming us into his house, which he had turned into a café and guesthouse. “The river and this climate sustain our land, our livestock and now our tourists, too.”

He said the main problems for residents remained the road, the lack of municipal waste collection services and electricity.

“Because the road is so bad, no one comes to collect the rubbish, some of which ends up in the river,” he said.

“We don’t want anything else. We do everything ourselves, as we have for centuries, from one generation to the next,” he added, recalling with pride the history of Kelmend and the community’s strong ties.

Other projects, such as “HEC Brojë”, “HEC Grabom” and “HEC Peshtan”, remain on paper. They have left behind a series of changes in the ownership of “Seman Sunpower”, a company known until 2017 as “Hydro Valbona”, which had also sought to develop hydropower plants in Valbonë.

Two economic directions

In an area where hydropower plants operate and more are planned, the greatest paradox remains the power cuts.

Officially, the problem lies in the ageing grid. But for residents, the reality is concrete: services cannot be provided, businesses close and tourists leave.

According to environmental activist Besjana Guri, this has created a dangerous perception: that these areas can secure a reliable electricity supply only through the construction of new hydropower plants.

There is no direct evidence of such a policy, but the balance of investment, with more going into generation than distribution, raises doubts about the priorities.

In economic terms, the difference is clear. Improving the grid does not generate direct revenue for private operators in the same way as producing electricity.

The same pattern appears in infrastructure. The 10-kilometre Tamarë–Vukël road remains unfinished, disappointing residents, some of whom have returned from abroad to invest in tourism after promises that the area would experience the same development boom as Theth.

Since the pandemic, Kelmend has indeed grown considerably, becoming an emerging destination. Guesthouses, local guides and small businesses have multiplied. The Cem’s clean water, caves, canyons and waterfalls have become tourism assets. But this economy remains fragile.

For an area that relies mainly on farming, livestock and, more recently, tourism, a hydropower boom risks damaging that economy.

The Cem is also an ecological artery. Dozens of bird and fish species have been identified along it, including the marble trout.

At this point, according to environmental activist Besjana Guri, interventions affect not only the water flow but the entire ecological chain. She warned that diverting water, especially into underground pipes, fragments habitats and reduces the ecosystem’s ability to regenerate itself.

But the Cem also continues into Montenegro, where its canyon has been declared a natural monument. This has made the hydropower projects a cross-border issue, prompting protests in 2018–2019.

Like Montenegro, Albania is a party to the Espoo Convention, which requires an assessment of transboundary impacts. Yet a full, coordinated analysis of these 10 hydropower plants is still missing.

At its core, the risk to the Cem River concerns more than a conflict between energy interests and those who want to protect nature. It concerns the model of development. Development centred on hydropower companies’ interests is short-term, compared with development whose benefits are widely distributed across the surrounding community.

But if the river continues to be diverted, the loss will be more than ecological. It will directly affect Kelmend’s local economy, which has only just begun to find its feet through tourism.