Albania
Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
, approximately northeast of
Tirana
Tirana ( , ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in Albania, largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest ov ...
Dajti Mountain National Park
Dajti Mountain National Park () is a national park established in 1966 in central Albania, spanning an area of since 2006. The park is east of the Adriatic Sea and east of Tirana. The area is under shared jurisdiction between Albanian Agency of ...
. It provides most of the drinking water for Tirana.
Geography
The reservoir is formed by a dam of the river Tërkuzë, a tributary of the
Ishëm
Ishëm is a former municipality in the Durrës County, northwestern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality Durrës. The population at the 2011 census was 5,001.Shkallë e Bovillës canyon between Mount Maja e Gomtitit (1268 m) and Mount Mali i Bjeshit (1239 m). The dam stands at the entrance to this canyon and is made from local conglomerate, gravel and sand. It is 91 m high and 130 m long.
Construction work originally began in 1988, but stopped with the collapse of communism. In October 1993, work was resumed thanks to the support of the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
state. After the end of construction in 1996, the lake took until 1998 to fill and begin to serve its purpose.
The water level varies over the course of the year by 7–10 metres, with the high water mark being reached during the rainy winter months. Measurements from 2006 to 2008 showed the greatest depth was around 45 metres. The difference from the original depth of 53 metres must be due to the sediment brought down by the river from upstream.
The Tërkuzë provides around 105,000,000 m3 of water per year from a catchment area of roughly . The annual water consumption is around 78,000,000 m3 - roughly the size of the reservoir. Roughly 1,800 litres of water are delivered to the processing plant from the reservoir per second, through a steel pipe (roughly 50 to 57 million m3 per year). In addition to this
surface water
Surface water is water located on top of land, forming terrestrial (surrounding by land on all sides) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean.
The vast majority of surfac ...
, the drinking water supply of Tirana is supplemented by natural underground wells and
artesian well
An artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of Permeability (ea ...
s, to meet a required need of 2.8 m3 per second (2009 estimate). The steel pipeline linking the reservoir to the processing plant in Kodra Kuqe, north of Tirana, is around 90 cm in diameter. Some of the water in the reservoir is also used for irrigation.
Nature preservation
The reservoir is located within the Mount Dajt National Park, a bit south of Shtamë Pass National Park. The cliff faces around the canyon and the dam offer good climbing prospects. Swimming in the reservoir is forbidden. There were only a few kinds of fish in the lake: the Schneider (''Alburnoides bipunctatus'') and
Barbus
''Barbus'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. The type species of ''Barbus'' is the common barbel, first described as ''Cyprinus barbus'' and now named ''Barbus barbus''. ''Barbus'' is the namesake genus of the subfamily Ba ...
carp were the most common. Large numbers of
grass carp
The grass carp (''Ctenopharyngodon idella'') is a species of large herbivorous freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae, native to the Pacific Far East, with a native range stretching from northern Vietnam to the Amur River on the Sino-Russian ...
have been caught by fishermen. The
silver carp
The silver carp or silverfin (''Hypophthalmichthys molitrix'') is a species of freshwater cyprinid fish, a variety of Asian carp native to China and eastern Siberia, from the Amur River drainage in the north to the Xi Jiang River drainage in ...
(''Hypophthalmichthys molitrix'') has been repeatedly introduced to improve the water quality.
Nine remote villages with over five thousand inhabitants are scattered in the hills around the reservoir. The inhabitants derive their livelihoods primarily from agriculture. About 400 families had to be resettled in order to create the reservoir. They received compensation for their land, but the movement was still violently opposed.
In September 2001, a bad odour and taste were first noticed in the water from the reservoir. Subsequently, a thorough investigation determined that the water quality was basically good. The source of the odour was suggested to be oxygen-dependent
actinobacteria
The Actinomycetota (or Actinobacteria) are a diverse phylum of Gram-positive bacteria with high GC content. They can be terrestrial or aquatic. They are of great importance to land flora because of their contributions to soil systems. In soil t ...
and
streptomyces
''Streptomyces'', from στρεπτός (''streptós''), meaning "twisted", and μύκης (''múkés''), meaning "fungus", is the largest genus of Actinomycetota, and the type genus of the family Streptomycetaceae. Over 700 species of ''St ...
. Experts suggested measures to reduce the
turbidity
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of both water clarity and wa ...
of the water:
reforestation
Reforestation is the practice of restoring previously existing forests and woodlands that have been destroyed or damaged. The prior forest destruction might have happened through deforestation, clearcutting or wildfires. Three important purpose ...
to reduce erosion, a protected area along the shore of the reservoir, and processing the wastewater from the settlements and farms in the surrounding area.
Bovilla
The Bovilla reservoir () is a reservoir in Albania, approximately northeast of Tirana and southeast of Kruja, within Dajti Mountain National Park. It provides most of the drinking water for Tirana.
Geography
The reservoir is formed by a dam ...
Bovilla
The Bovilla reservoir () is a reservoir in Albania, approximately northeast of Tirana and southeast of Kruja, within Dajti Mountain National Park. It provides most of the drinking water for Tirana.
Geography
The reservoir is formed by a dam ...