The Rama government’s decision to build a new airport for the southern coastal Vlora city has come under fire by foreign ecological groups that claim this airport will destroy one of Europe’s largest wetlands.
The airport’s intended site is near the Narta Lagoon, in Akërni, an area located within the Vjosa–Narta Protected Landscape, where flows one of Europe’s last wild rivers. The river serves as a habitat for the endangered Dalmatian pelican.
The EuroNatur foundation claims that the construction of this airport will cause irreparable damage to the protected area.
The foundation’s executive director, Gabriel Schwaderer, has addressed prime minister Rama with a letter stating that “the construction of an international airport in this sensitive location will pose irreversible damage to the ecosystem of Narta-Vjosa and even the whole Adriatic coast.”
He further asked the government to undertake environmental impact assessments according to international standards, certain that these assessments could only come to the conclusion that such a construction will be “incompatible with the protection of the Narta–Vjosa ecosystem.”
Unfortunately, these environmentalists’ pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears as the Rama government’s law green-lighting negotiations for a concession contract to build the airport has already been passed in Parliament, without tender or transparency.
The airport will be constructed by the consortium of Turkish companies Cengiz Construction, Kaylon Construction, and Kolin Construction, who presented the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy with an unsolicited project proposal that was immediately accepted by the Rama government.
