The administrative court in Tirana will decide today whether or not to cancel the concession contract for the construction of two hydropower plants in the Valbona river in the Albanian Alps.
A group of inhabitants from the area in which the hydropower plants are being built, together with non-profit organization Toka have filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Tourism, the National Territorial Council, the National Environmental Agency, and the Territorial Development Agency. They plaintiffs claim that the institutions didn’t take the necessary measures to implement the court decision of June 2017, which prohibited construction company Gener 2 from continuing construction work in Valbona.
The inhabitants also demand that court annul the concession contract between Gener 2 and the Ministry of Energy, signed in 2009.
The construction of hydropower plants in the Valbona valley has been consistently opposed, through protests and concerts, by inhabitants and environmental activists.
In May, the Administrative Court already annulled a similar concession for a hydropower plant in the Vjosa river near Poçem.
