The Disappearance of Prespa Lake

The Prespa Lake, considered as even older than the officially oldest lake in Europe, Ohrid Lake, is endangered.

It is positioned higher than the Ohrid Lake and supplies it with water. According to numerous scientists and NASA, about 20 percent of the total volume of Lake Ohrid comes from Prespa water.

Throughout its history, the lake has had periods of drastic water loss and return, which makes it a cyclical lake. Despite that, plenty of anthropogenic factors led to the catastrophic condition in which the lake is. One of them is agriculture. The mistakes in water management in the past decades have led to problems nowadays. The lake lost 7 percent of its surface and 53 million cubic meters of water. It is a part of Southern Europe that is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and it does not have a bright future. The problems are extremely visible in Litle Prespa in Albania and in Stenje on the Macedonian side.

There is an eutrophication in the lake, which is a process of increased biological productivity due to the presence of a large amount of chemical substances, such as phosphorus or nitrogen, that end up in the lake from artificial fertilizers used in agriculture. 1995 was the first year when the occurrence of anaeroby in the lake was noticed. There is fish smuggling and a lack of faster cross-border engagement, continuous biochemical research, and research on the outflow of water. The team of journalists was looking for possible solutions for this problem.

📷 Dimitar Micev