Business
Kelmend residents and two environmental groups sue the state over hydropower plants in Vukël
The lawsuit at the Tirana Administrative Court seeks to halt construction and annul the “Ura e Tamarës” concession and the permits for the existing Vukël hydropower plant.
By ANN Newsroom · Newsroom
October 20, 2026, 15:51 · Updated 12:22 · 2 min read
In brief
- Five residents of Vukël and Kozhnjë, together with the LUMI Center and the “Well-Point” association, have filed suit against five state institutions.
- They are seeking an immediate halt to construction and the annulment of the concession contract and environmental permits.
- The concession approved in 2019 provides for three hydropower plants on the same river, with a combined capacity of about 15 MW.
Five residents of the villages of Vukël and Kozhnjë in Kelmend, together with the environmental organizations LUMI Center and the “Well-Point” association, have taken the hydropower projects on the Vukël River, in the Cem basin, to the Tirana Administrative Court of First Instance. The lawsuit was filed on Monday and made public by BIRN.
The defendants are the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, the National Environment Agency, the National Territorial and Water Council, the National Agency of Protected Areas and the Malësi e Madhe municipality. Tamara Hydro Energy, the concession holder, and WTS Energji, which holds the permits for the existing Vukël hydropower plant, have been named as third parties.
What the concession provides
The “Ura e Tamarës” concession, first approved in 2019, includes three hydropower plants on the same river: Kozhnja 1 at 1.9 MW, Kozhnja 2 at 1 MW and Tamara at about 12.1 MW. The contract was amended in February 2025, extending the deadlines for obtaining the necessary permits. The plaintiffs are also challenging a 2010 authorization and a 2013 water-use permit for the existing plant.
According to them, work has begun on the ground, but residents have not been fully informed about its nature, the mandatory information sign is missing and requests for documents have gone largely unanswered. It is not clear whether the Vukël plant is being rebuilt or whether the three new plants are being started.
The plaintiffs' arguments
The plaintiffs argue that there was no real consultation with the community and that the environmental impact assessment did not measure the combined effect of the three plants on the river, biodiversity and the villages' water supply. The river rises in the Albanian Alps National Park and is a habitat of the marble trout, an endangered species. They also raise the lack of cross-border consultation with Montenegro, as the Cem flows toward the Moraça and Lake Shkodra.
“Our homes” are at risk, said Niko Gjelaj, one of the plaintiffs from Vukël, while LUMI director Besjana Guri described the lawsuit as a critical step toward protecting the upper course of the Cem.
