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| Shaban Peka in the trout farming establishment |
On the feet of Pashtrik Mountain, between the peak of Gajrepi on one side and the slope of Krume on the other, there stretches a beautiful plain where Krume's Vrella is located - a large underground water source declared a monument of Albanian nature.
The Krume river also flows from Vrella, once known for its clear water, cold temperature, and continental fauna, also known as the mountain fauna.
Shaban Peka, 66 years old, remembers that the Krume river and the wild fauna were an inseparable part of his childhood, which they easily enjoyed in various ways.
"At that time, we tasted the fauna with baskets woven with wicker. The wild fauna flowed against the water current, and we were scared of it with sticks," Peka recalls.
"When we were children, we would go and block the mill canal, and the wild fauna would be blocked in the canal, and we would catch it with buckets. There was so much of it," he added, while remembering that the miller often chased them to beat them because they stopped his work.
But the wild fauna disappeared after the 1990s, and to replace it, Shaban Peka built a farm for cultivating California fauna near the source of Vrella.
Experts and local officials told BIRN that the cause of the disappearance of the wild fauna from the Krume river was the large amounts of chlorine dumped in 1995 and continuous pollution of the river through blackwater and urban waste.
Hasan Ahmeti, former director of hygiene and epidemiology in Kukes during 1995-2000, recalls that at that time, the area was hit by an alarm for the outbreak of cholera, and the Krume river had a high pollution level because the army brigade's toilets were located above the underground water flow.
"We chlorinated the water several times, but the indicators did not improve. We opened a large pit above the Vrella site and poured a large amount of chlorine, about a truckload of chlorine," Ahmeti says.
Sahit Jaku, a doctor at the Krume hospital who held the position of director of public health in the mid-1990s, calls the dumping of large amounts of chlorine into the water depot and Vrella a lack of responsibility.
"Employee irresponsibility in the disposal of chlorine, not only in the warehouse but also in the source of Vrella and as a result of panic, has led to the disappearance of living creatures in the Kruma River," Jaku added.
For Klementina Ngjeçi, a "Doctor of Science" in geography and a teacher at the "Skënderbeu" high school in Kruma, indiscriminate chlorine dumping is not the only factor in the disappearance of the wild fauna and other creatures from the river.
He lists as causes also uncontrolled urban development, waste disposal, and the discharge of black water into the river.
"The wild fauna in the Kruma River has disappeared due to the dumping of chlorine in the water, but also due to the waste and black water that are discharged into the river as a result of numerous constructions. Mixed black waters with detergents and various chemicals have caused this rare species to disappear," said Ngjeçi.
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| Vrell |
Biologist and botanist Manjola Morina sounds the alarm that besides the mountain's wild fauna, there are other species heading towards extinction in this river, such as stonefly and green-bark beetle - the latter protected by the Bern Convention.
"The Municipality has not taken care of the Kruma River's maintenance, where along with the disposal of waste and discharge of black water, there is also a lack of investment in this direction. Fauna in the Kruma River is heading towards extinction," says Morina.
The Municipality of Kruma is aware of the problems with the river's fauna damage, but its leaders complain that they lack funds to carry out investments.
The Deputy Mayor of the municipality, Flamur Thaçi, told BIRN that they have drafted a project-idea that provides for investments in the river and a pedestrian path similar to that of Lumbardhi in Prizren, but the project has not been approved "due to lack of funds."
"The disappearance of wild fauna in the Kruma River is also due to water scarcity, starting from the source but also from the rapid urban developments that Kruma has experienced since the 1990s," Thaçi told BIRN.
Although the causes are well known, environmental crime of river pollution is not punished. The State Health Inspectorate in Has and Kukës has not taken any administrative measures in this regard.
"We only control water quality and chlorine disposal. As for waste and the discharge of black water, we have not exercised any control or imposed any fines," said Arjana Ukperaj, the Inspectorate's responsible person in Has.
The same is repeated by Fatjon Muja, the director of the State Health Inspectorate for the Kukës district. "As an inspectorate, we have not imposed any fines for pollution in the Kruma River," he added.
For the past ten years, dealing with the stabilizing of the Californian stonefly, Shaban Peka says he has only encountered a wild stonefly in the source of Vrella once.
“I took the wild trout and threw it in the tub with the soft trout. I kept an eye on it. The wild trout was not growing, but only getting weaker," Peka recalls. "Then I took it and threw it in the river," he concludes wistfully.