KESH (Albanian Energy Corporation) has officially suspended work on three dams (mountain retention structures) on the Mërtur River in the Albanian Alps. The decision follows protests by local residents and environmental organisations, as well as the demands of the protest representatives.

Besjana Guri, LUMI’s Executive Director, who visited the site and witnessed the damage to the riverbed firsthand, says: “This is a momentary victory, but a very important one for Nikaj-Mërtur. What I saw on the Mërtur River is, unfortunately, a familiar story: projects that disregard the voices of local residents, the environment, and the opinions of experts and civil society. For now, let’s celebrate this victory and the power of people who rise up to protect their rivers.”

While we welcome and commend KESH for this decision, a clear and well-founded assessment is needed on whether these structures should be built at all within the Mërtur River watershed.

We also call for full public transparency regarding the project documentation and the preliminary studies KESH carried out concerning the planned intervention.

Background information:

• Work on the dams project began in mid-June 2026 without prior consultation with local residents or any information provided about the nature of the works. On 5 July, more than 300 residents of Nikaj-Mërtur, together with environmental activists, held a peaceful protest near the Mërturi bridge after excavators had already stripped away more than a kilometre of the riverbed and diverted its flow to build access roads for machinery. The Head of the Lekbibaj Administrative Unit joined residents at the protest, backing their call for transparency, and a public hearing originally scheduled for that same day was cancelled amid the mobilisation.
• Nikaj-Mërtur has been a Regional Natural Park since 2014 and sits at the heart of the Albanian Alps, an area of exceptional biodiversity and natural tourism potential. The Mërturi River remains one of the region's least disturbed waterways.
• LUMI is an official partner of the Save the Blue Heart of Europe Campaign, a coalition of NGOs working to raise awareness about the wave of dam construction across the Balkan Peninsula and to protect the region’s most valuable rivers and river stretches from destruction. LUMI’s work focuses on river protection in Albania, with a special emphasis on the Albanian Alps.