50 organisations write letter to Prime Minister Kurti about destroying rivers: We are deeply disappointed

With this open letter to Prime Minister Kurti has been asked for an urgent meeting regarding the critical situation and river protection.

Their letter says that “Minister Aliu has abandoned the democratic mandate given by the people, excluding the public from decision-making processes and allowing Kosovo's rivers to be under the control of hydropower operators, for which every drop of water on the river is lost in their pockets”.

Full letter without interference:

Open letter to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Mr. Albin Kurti 22.03.2024

Honored Prime Minister Albin Kurti,

In the case of World Water Day, March 22, 2024, we are addressing you with deep disappointment to request aborting Administrative Guide (UA) MMPHI 04/2022 for Environmental Left to end arbitrary decisions and abuses of our natural resources from the Ministry of Environment.

Since 2021, a group of civil society organisations and activists have been trying to ensure the involvement of public participation in administrative guidance (UA) 04/2022 for Environmental Left.

This has been done initially by sending comments to the draft proposed by the Ministry of Environment in 2021 but that none of our comments has been taken to base.

Our main requirement was that the influenced public be notified and have the right to present evidence about the state of the environment before giving environmental permission, which is the last administrative act and that allows for resource operation or exploitation.

This has been required because, for the release of environmental permits, the Environment Ministry takes into account only the information delivered by operators, which, as is known in hydro power cases in Lumbardh and Lepenc, operators have never announced mass destruction.

When we learned that our comments have not been taken into account or figured out even on the official page, together with Austrian organisation Riverwatch, we have committed ourselves through a legal analysis, to direct Minister Lieburn Aliu that this UA does not fulfill the obligation stemming from Article 52 of the Constitution of Kosovo and the directive of the European Union intended to transpos it, which Kosovo has committed to transposed directly and fully. But our letter has been ignored and without any communication and clarification, Minister Aliu signed this UA, making it the Ministry of Environment and, as it was later seen, himself and the power operators, the only authorities to decide what degradation or rehabilitation of the environment we live in.

After passing this direction on 2022, as you know, we've officially asked you to cancel it and after the analysis that was done by your legal office, the Ministry of Environment is instructed to do the completion to include public participation. But Minister Ali also ignored your instructions.

Now in the end, it has been learned that at the very time that we and your legal office have made these efforts to communicate, Minister Aliu has held secret meetings with Kelkos, where they have also agreed to issue environmental permits, even though massive damage from the hydropower plant has never been reported or rehabilitated. Look at the photos below.

So we're aware that this UA passage and the exclusion of the public are calculated in order to accommodate operators who are benefiting millions of euros from the abuse of our water supply or even
Other resources and have no interest in respecting the law. But these actions of Minister Aliu have created an extremely uncertain situation for businesses that want to invest and respect the law in Kosovo because any permits issued to this UA will be contested in court.

As an organization that follows the work of the Ministry of Environment, we are scandalized by the approach of Minister Aliu, where with unseed arrogance ignores the Constitution of Kosovo, obligations derived from EU directives, legal guidelines from you, role and findings of monitoring institutions, calls news conferences for the media, and issues public statements against civil society, and most importantly, ignores evidence and scientific facts that testify to the drying of rivers, loss of intocation, and the disappearance of biodiversity.

It is alarming to hear the ministry's continued propaganda of the ministry's achievements to protect Kosovo's rivers, as the state of our rivers -- especially those in national parks, in Sharr and Bjeshks and Nemuna -- clearly testify to Ali's failure to protect endangered waters.