News, April 2024

On 29.04.2024, the National Committee of Large Dams (ALBCOLD) organized the usual meeting for April 2024.

In this meeting, several main issues were analyzed and discussed as follows:

• Review of the Preparedness Plan in cases of civil emergencies of the Dam of HPP Osoja. Based on the documentation of the Preparedness Plan in cases of civil emergencies for the Dam of HPP Osoja submitted to SKDM, it was observed that this documentation has included the requirements of the ALBCOLD instruction regarding the drafting of these plans expressed in ALBCOLD Decision No. 5, dated 16.11.2020. KTPD recommended to the members of the ALBCOLD to approve the Preparedness plan in the case of civil emergencies at the Dam of HPP Osoja. After all the members’ discussions, ALBCOLD decided to approve the Emergency Plan in cases of civil emergencies presented by FAVINA Company shpk. At the same time, the members of ALBCOLD agreed that it is required to remove FAVINA shpk to install hydrometeorological, geodetic, seismic, and hydrogeological monitoring systems in the body of the dam and to send to ALBCOLD the schemes and floor plans of the installation of the dam’s monitoring systems, as well as to update the regulation of the discharge of large volumes, including discharges due to large flows that occur once in 50 years and once in 100 years.

For more detailed information, please click Decision No. 10 of ALBCOLD, date 29.04.2024 here

• Analyze the request of Shijak Municipality regarding the solution of the problems found in the Rubjeka dam. In the letters sent by the Durres Prefecture and the Shijak municipality, as well as the situation presented by representatives of the Municipality and the Prefecture, it appears that on the left side of the Rubjeka dam, there is a slide in the lower part of the dam in a length of 40 m which can affect the safety and stability of the dam. From the inspections carried out on the ground, it appears that the Municipality of Shijak does not have any monitoring with instruments of these movements and no project for the rehabilitation of the dam near ALBCOLD has been presented to be reviewed and approved according to the legislation in force. After the discussions of all the members present, KKDM decided to ask Shijak Municipality as the user of the Rubjeka dam with a height of 16 m to take urgent measures to block the road over the crown of the dam, monitor and control every week the movements of the body. of the dam as well as the gradual lowering of the water level in the reservoir, to urgently install the geodetic monitoring system and to carry out geodetic measurements in the body of the dam as well as in the slip zone, to take measures for preparation as soon as possible of the implementation project for the emergency intervention of the landslide rehabilitation in the body of the dam, the control and rehabilitation of the catastrophic surface discharger and the control of the stability of the dam, FV of the instruments for monitoring the dam and the alarm system according to the requirements of the legislation in force

For more detailed information, please click Decision No. 11 of ALBCOLD, date 29.04.2024 here

• Approval of the Memorandum of Understanding between ALBCOLD and GRCOLD. At the proposal of the chairman of ALBCOLD, the Memorandum of Understanding between ALBCOLD and GRCOLD was reviewed, which will make it possible to create and regulate the institutional conditions of cooperation between the two homologous Institutions in the field of safety and monitoring of dams and will determine the basic priorities of to this cooperation based on institutional independence, mutual respect and universal principles of cooperation accepted by both parties. Both Committees will allow the exchange of experiences and knowledge in dam engineering. After the discussions of all members present, ALBCOLD decided to approve the Memorandum of Understanding between the National Committee of Large Dams of Albania (ALBCOLD) and the National Committee of Large Dams of Greece (GRCOLD) according to the text attached to this Decision.

For more detailed information, please click Decision No. 12 of ALBCOLD, date 29.04.2024 here

• Review of the Annual Report of 2023 for the dams that are under the administration of MARD. From the review of the Report, it can be seen that in all the large dams administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), which according to the legislation in force are objects of special importance, there is no data for real monitoring and with instruments of these dams, no contingency plans have been prepared in case of civil emergencies, there is no alarm system installed in these dams or in the urban areas below them, no data have been presented regarding their real integrated monitoring. The lack of water volume measurements in the reservoir for years has brought problems not only for the integrated and complex management of the created water reserves but also for the fact that these facilities were built more than 45 years ago and the sediment problems seem to be big and have significantly reduced the actual volume of water in these reservoirs. Also, in all the large dams administered by the MARD, there is no assessment of the assets of the dams. The maintenance of these dams has many problems which are causing the deterioration of their condition. After the discussions of all the members present, ALBCOLD decided to ask MARD as the user of the large dams administered by it, to take measures for the maintenance and monitoring of large dams through the monitoring systems required in articles 32 and 33 of the relevant DCM given above. In the framework of these measures, the installation of real-time and online dam monitoring systems should be considered, as well as the creation of a database for monitoring dams and reservoirs created by them;

For more detailed information, please click Decision No. 13 of ALBCOLD, date 29.04.2024 here