Europe’s ancient Lake Prespa is on the brink of collapse. What will it take to save it?

Lake Prespa borders North Macedonia, Albania and Greece.

Transcript

00:00Lake Prepsa, whose waters are shared by the three Balkan states, North Macedonia, Albania

00:06and Greece, is about to collapse.

00:08From year to year, the process of withdrawing the waters from this lake with unique biodiversity

00:13becomes more and more intense.

00:16In the early 90s, the shore of the lake was here, where I'm standing.

00:21And now, as you can see, it's almost 100 meters behind me.

00:28In order to prevent this environmental disaster caused by climate change and human factors,

00:33non-governmental organizations from the three countries initiated the Forum for the Development

00:37of the Prepsa Region.

00:40This is in order to appeal to state institutions of climate change that there is no more time

00:44to delay the implementation of political agreements that foresee mechanisms for saving this ecosystem.

00:51They want to appeal to the governments and local authorities to speed up the efforts

00:58around the institutional connection, concrete implementation of action plans.

01:04Too much research has been done, too many good strategic materials, however, there is a

01:10lack of action on the ground, and this is what the people identify best and expect from

01:16the three countries to take more or less urgent measures.

01:23At this forum, representatives of the Lake Constance Foundation presented their experience

01:28with the management of a unique ecosystem divided into three countries.

01:33The success of this foundation is based on the political agreement signed by Switzerland,

01:37Germany, and Austria in the 60s, which has been successfully implemented.

01:43Lake Constance and Lake Prepsa are the only places in Europe whose waters are shared by three countries.

01:50Social society cannot wait for some politicians in far-off capitals to have the mindset that

01:58it's important or whatever.

01:59So, if the people here and the mayors, if they realize and they think it's necessary

02:05and it's important, then probably they can influence also politician-makers on a higher

02:10level to really enforce the agreement.

02:13Several organizations from North Macedonia, Albania, and Greece have committed to continue

02:18the mutual cooperation that did not exist in the past due to complicated geopolitical

02:22constellations in the Balkans.

02:24They hope to prevent the ecological catastrophe of this lake that is more than a million years old.