Secret Deal to Draw Water from Lake Ohrid Shocks Macedonians

By Natasa Dokovska

OHRID, Macedonia, October 19, 2000 (ENS) - Behind closed doors, Macedonian government officials have negotiated a deal with their Albanian counterparts that will allow Albania to use water from Macedonia’s part of Ohrid Lake for the generation of electricity.

Officials from Macedonia’s Agriculture Ministry and from the Ministry of Environment and Planning took part in the secret meeting in the Macedonian town of Struga on the shores of Ohrid Lake.

Lake Ohrid (Photos (c) N. Dokovska)

Macedonians were shocked Tuesday when a participant in the negotiations revealed the watersharing deal.

The Macedonian government will give the water just to the environmental minimum on Lake Ohrid, government officials now say. They put that figure at approximately 9,000,000 cubic meters for the period of five years.

The Macedonian government says that it is "giving a helping hand" to neighboring Albania.

Toni Popovski, Macedonian minister of environment and planning, says that the watersharing arrangement will not damage Macedonia.

But Macedonian environmentalists say, he has forgetton that this is not the first time the Macedonian government has made a environmental negotiation that could damage Macedonia.

Lake Ohrid

Dojran Lake is on the border between Macedonia and Greece, and before that watersharing agreement it was the healthiest lake in the region. But Dojran Lake is now dead.

Too much of the water from the lake is going to the Greek partner in the deal. The agreement says that Greece will take five million cubic metres annually, but Greece has taken 11 million cubic metres, enough to kill the Lake, Macedonian conservationists charge.

Macedonian environmentalists have reacted angrily to this new watersharing agreement.

The Minister of Economics, Borko Andreev, says it is good for Macedonia. But environmentalists point out that it has been made in a period when Macedonia does not have enough water to generate its own electricity, and its two main hydroelectric generating facilities, Globociva and Spilje, are operating on a mininum of water.