DRINI DAY CELEBRATIONS
The 5th of May is a very important day for Drini River. Drini length is about 335 km and 285 km of it passes through Albania and is the longest river of this country. The 5th of May 2021 was a special date because it marks the 10th
anniversary of the signing of the “Memorandum of Understanding” for the management of Drini River (DRIN CORDA) supported by the project Drin, GEF.
EDEN Center chose to celebrate this day in the Shkodra region. In the framework of the project "Drini - Support for life and nature", the EDEN Center started the celebrations in Mjeda area with the students of the School "Hajmel". The students participated in an outdoor guide to get acquainted with the values of Drini’s ecosystem with nature. Environmental games accompanied the activity where students gave messages about Drini, such as: Drini is a source of energy, Drini plays an important role for the development of tourism, Drini helps agriculture, Drini has a very beautiful landscape and wildlife.
The celebrations for the day "Music, Nature and Interaction" continued in the afternoon in the square in front of the Municipality of Shkodra, with an exhibition of 26 photographs. Environmentalists sent their photos capturing the beauty of Drini River, which EDEN Center displayed at the event. A discussion panel was held with representatives of civil society organizations, representatives of the Drin - Buna Water Basin Council and the Drin - Buna Water Basin Administration Office.
Among the issues discussed was the lack of awareness of the residents to protect Drini River. There was a need for continuous awareness campaigns with young people, tourists, etc., so we can protect Drini River. Waste was one of the most delicate topics that negatively affects the Drin River. Government institutions need to strengthen field inspections, and the responsible government institutions themselves need to strengthen cooperation between them in order to have more monitoring activities and better water basin management. The event was accompanied by the sounds of music by young musicians to invite the citizens of Shkodra to the event.
EDEN Center for this activity distributed to the attendees hand-made textile shopping bags, hand bracelets with a message for Drini, made of textile from recycled materials by the local tailors of Vau i Dejes, postcards with photos from Drini to send to relatives,button pins with species of representative animals and plants of the water basin.
We thank the Municipality of Shkodra for their cooperation, the civil society organizations and government institutions that joined the activity and engaged in the discussion panel "Let's talk about Drini River", nature lovers who sent us photos to present in the exhibition of the activity, the School "Hajmel", volunteers of the EDEN center, the Naturalists, and all the citizens who joined the celebrations with us for Drini Day.
The activities were supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the facilitation program of the project entitled “Enabling Cross-Border Cooperation and Integrated Water Resources Management in the Extended Drin River Basin” (Drin Project) implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and is executed by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) through GWP-Mediterranean (GWP-Med).
The photos of the events organised on 5th May can be found on EDEN facebook page thorugh this link