50 million tons of ashes jeopardize the entire Korca region!

The Albanian government has sent for adoption to the Albanian Parliament the draft-law “On the turning of 288,4 hectares of agricultural land into a mineral landin the area of Maliqi former swamp in Korça. According to the draft-law relation, there is a quantity of 156 million of peat which is forecasted to be burnt into a ThermoPower Plant for the production of electric power and steam for house heating. The Council of Ministers is about to issue a license to an association for the construction of a TPP in the village of Sheqeras and according to the elderly of Sheqeras village, Mr. ThanasKajo, this surface of land is sold. All these steps were undertaken without notifying the public and the Municipality Councils of Maliq and Devoll. Meanwhile in the official website of ASIG.gov.al of the Health Authority for the Geospatial Information (ASIG), this area called “Area 876”, even though not approved yet in the Albanian Parliament, is now considered as mineral area. Consequences? “Irreversible! 4600 hectares of agricultural land will be destroyed. 50 million tons of ash will be produced due to land burning. Property destruction for hundreds of farmers.Destruction of ecosystem, flora and fauna, system of underground waters.Damage of residents` health.Image impairment of the touristic perspective of Korça, Prespa, Pogradec, Voskopoja, Dardha and the entire region.The draft-lawrelation presented by government is insufficient. There are no data in the draft-law as regards the expected level of pollution as well as no information provided on environmental studies before issuing the license for mineral exploitation. Also Albania does not have any plant to process the dangerous waste that will be released from the Thermo Power Plant. In the relation there was only “There are presented studies”, without defining the reasons and the authors of the studies. The Ministry of Energetics and Industry, according to the relation, “sees the project for the construction of the TPP in Maliq as a potential alternative”. The relation is deficient with many dark and unclear points! Specialistssay: This is the first time in Albania that a project which exploits peat to produce electric power is undertaken. According to specialists, the peat of Maliq is not a rentable source at all, as it is in the phase of rooting, still far from the natural way of creating lignitecoal (low-grade coal). The agro-chemist LadiBabo from Korca who has worked for 25 years in the lab of agricultural lands study, says that according to the agro-chemical and studies on land productivity carried out in the agricultural laboratory of Korça, the peat of Maliq contained the highest organic material in comparison to others in the country. “According to agro-chemical ranking, -says Babo, -the land is rich when there is over 3% humus, whereas Maliq land has 30-50% of humus, and as a result considered as an excellent agricultural land. Meanwhile the studies on land productivity found that Maliq peat was a peat which has not passed the process of mineralization and has very law calorific power and based on manuals its calorific power goes from 1500 to 1800 kilocalories per kilo, whereas the mineralized peat found in Bezhani mine in Erseka district has over 2, 400 kilocalories per kilo. The calorific power of the peat is much lower than the power of peat in Mborje, Drenove in the mine nearby.The experts affirm that if the Thermo Power Plant is established there, it will not provide the necessary calorific power. Besides this, even the layers of peat according to agro-chemical studies are not deep layers and in large quantities. In this area, in 2008-2009, two mining permissions were issued by MEI, which at the end of their legal term, did not continue further procedures to be issued with exploitation permit. In these lands, the average depth of peat varies from 5-7 meters, thus the project according to Babo is not productive. Even for the chemist expert Berti Kotmilo, also former mayor of Korca municipality 1996-2000, the project indicates that Albania has not a genuine energy strategy. “What is the economic benefit versus cost?Is it worth it that for this benefited energy, an entire system of underground water and water for irrigation is destroyed in the entire Korça field? Is it worth it to intoxicate thousands of residents and pollute the environment, where the government has published no study for its protection? Such dark projects are being hidden for the interest of somebody. We are at a point where there is no energy strategy, just some sporadic insignificant projects. We have destroyed the thermo power plant of Korça and Maliq that produced energy, and today we need to sacrifice an agricultural land, which is senseless as these Thermo Power Plants have worked with coal coming from Korca mines and the villages near Maliq. There are qualitative coals in this area, but we do give mines to the Greek companies and at the same timewe destroy agricultural lands”. The residents and the civil society react.This land is vital to the residents of the area. If this Thermo Power Plant is established,there will be either damage of the lands to be exploited, or the lands of owners nearby, because after the extraction of the peat, the process of land subsidence starts and then the re-swamping of the area is even more massive. The residents of Sheqeras village are determined not to allow the project. Viktor Llënga, 56, says: “My father dried this swamp, he has been a tractor-driver. They want to take it away from us, we earn the living here, they want to bring diseases here. We want to raise grandsons and granddaughter and not kill them with the plants` emissions. This is not going to happen! They have done no bargains with us, that`s not right! They haven`t told anything to none of us”. The young boy Johanis Fekaj also resident of the village says: “Our parents have lived the time of the swamp and have worked really hard to transform this land as it is today. We are not allowing anybody to take away our food, and destroy the land again”! The elderly Thanas Kajo says that the land where the Thermo Power Plant will be built would be given to those people who haven`t benefited from Law 7501.” They didn`t do that, at least not destroy it.This will never happen, as many people feed with the land` products. No resident in Sheqeras agrees with the fact that our village turns into a swamp with malaria”. The draft-law has caused objections of the civil society, environmental experts, residents, media and public opinion as well. The coalition for the Protection of the peat lands has started the civic action for the draft-law withdrawal from parliament and the discussion on solutions to be found in proprietorship aspect, land management and investments in the area.