Talks

with Saša Bjelic, Ardian Nrecaj, Rea Nepravishta, Maida Bilal

Led by: Cristina Marí Moreno, Editor-at-Large at K2.0

 

Water — it’s rather essential to life, isn’t it?

It’s hard to comprehend that protecting sources of water, with all of its power, could be brought into question. You’d assume that any effort to destroy waters, or access to it, would be met with a strong, structured mobilization in opposition.

But what we see around us suggests that those destroying waters are being joined by governments, while those fighting for their protection are being faced with a fight that seems to get harder and harder every day.

Persistent threats, continuous pressure, and intimidation through lawsuits by big corporations, are just some of the means being used in an attempt to shut activists down. To prevail in protecting waters has become difficult, and the price citizens will have to pay for the waters being destroyed is getting higher.

In such contexts, activists remain ceaseless. For them, the waters must flow.

To discuss environmental protection and access to water as a human right under threat, we have invited some of the fiercest voices in the region:

Saša Bjelić

Ardian Nrecaj

Rea Nepravishta

Maida Bilal

 

This discussion is implemented with the support of the Prince Claus Fund. 

Speakers

Saša Bjelić

Saša Bjelić lives in Priboj, Serbia and is a civic activist working on environmental protection issues. He is currently working on protecting the river Lim from illegal landfills and hydroelectric power plants. He is the founder of the NGO Hrast-Priboj. Bjelić is also a journalist and correspondent for the Danas newspaper on issues of environmental protection and has also written about psychology. Bjelić has also been an actor on several films and TV shows. He also works as a school psychologist. Bjelić graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade with a psychology degree.

Ardian Nrecaj

Ardian Nrecaj founded the “Grupi per Mbrojtjen e Badovcit” (“Group for the protection of Badovc”) on Facebook. The group managed to stop the construction of villas on the shores of Lake Badovc. Now the group has been renamed “Grupi per mbrojtjen e Ujerave dhe Mjedisit” (“Group for the protection of water and the environment”) and continues to advocate for the protection of lakes, rivers, and the environment. Nrecaj is a project manager for the World Wildlife Fund Adria (WWF Adria), and a project coordinator between the WWF Adria and two other implementing partners in Albania, in the Valbona valley, fighting the construction of hydropower plants on the Valbona river. For many years he worked for the US Army in Kosovo.

Rea Nepravishta

Rea Nepravishta studied cultural and linguistic mediation at the University of Milan, Italy, where she also completed a master of science in international relations. Rea is currently working with the World Wildlife Fund Adria in Tirana with the river protection program against the construction of HECs. Over the last 10 years she has worked in the field of human rights with the European Delegation in Tirana, as well as on the protection of refugee rights with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She is part of a collective that focuses on research on feminism and gender equality issues in Albania.

Maida Bilal

Maida Bilal led a group of women from her village on a 503-day blockade of heavy equipment that resulted in the cancellation of permits for two proposed dams on the Kruščica River in December 2018. The Balkans are home to the last free-flowing rivers in Europe. However, a massive hydropower boom in the region threatens to irreversibly damage thousands of miles of pristine rivers. For her efforts, she was awarded the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize, a first for Bosnia and Herzegovina.