OHRID, July 1 – Dimitar Pfinishoski walks to the end of a rickety driveway, passes through young sunbathing and selects a tarps that protects his empty lakeside restaurant, recently closed by officials under pressure from Unesco.
The North Macedonian government is complying with environmental coverage regulations and fencing for places like the self-built Pendoski restaurant, to prevent Lake Ohrid from being inscribed on the UN Cultural Agency’s list of World Heritage sites in Danger.
“In this way, everyone loses: the employees, the economy and, of course, the tourists because they have nowhere to spend on the beach,” Pendoski told AFP, a point much disputed by environmentalists.
Thanks to its fauna and flora, prehistoric ruins and Byzantine churches, Lake Ohrid and its landscape have been classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for 4 decades.
Only a few dozen establishments in the world have earned for their nature and culture, a source of prestige for Lake Ohrid, and a major asset for marketing the region to tourists.
But the UN framework said the Ohrid region would be placed on the “at-risk” list at a high-level assembly in late July due to considerations of out-of-control urbanization and pollution.
Unless North Macedonia can perform diplomatic miracles, the lake will be cited with wonders like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
The mayor of the city of Ohrid, Konstantin Georgieski, is at the center of a tangle of local and national government agencies tasked with solving problems.
Their project is confusing due to the foreign size: the lake is in Albania and its leaders are also concerned in discussions with UNESCO.
But Georgieski panics.
“It’s going to mean the end of the world,” he said of Unesco’s decision, emphasizing that the prestige of heritage provides funding.
“After 30 years of neglect, they (Unesco) lose patience. “
“Lake Cancer”
Unesco first added the Macedonian aspect of the lake to its World Heritage List in 1979, expanding the front to include the Albanian aspect in 2019.
At the time of Yugoslavia, Ohrid a sleepy deal known basically for its hospitals and as an educational post for sports teams.
However, after the secession of Macedonia and the chaotic disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, tourist expansion began to expand along the shores of the lake.
Esplanades, five-story hotels and bars were born and with them came apartment buildings that represent a satellite of the old town.
Contractors have taken advantage of loopholes to build on protected land, without even connecting to the sewer system.
Unesco estimates that one third of buildings in the Ohrid region pump waste into the lake.
“It all went to hell,” says Nikola Paskali, an archaeologist who spent two diving in the lake.
Sometimes he looks for Bronze Age relics, but look for trash: TVs, toilets, and even a full-size bathroom are among the items he’s pulled out of the depths.
“Waste is the cancer of the lake,” he says, accusing the government of doing little for biodiversity in a lake that formed more than 1. 3 million years ago and is home to dozens of exclusive species.
UNESCO has highlighted that they range from illegal construction, logging and fish farms to river diversions and the construction of random roads.
Much of this is underpinned by the region’s preference for a center for tourism.
“If we do it now, it would take years and years to fix the damage we’ve caused,” says Katarina Vasileska of the environmental organization SOS Ohrid.
“It’s Ibiza”
But cleaning up the lake comes with risks.
Mayor Georgieski ordered the destruction of several structures built on the lake that served as discotheques and makeshift restaurants.
“It’s hard to destroy someone’s assets in a small town like ours,” he says. “I’m now a non-public enemy of those other people. “
But it reflects that commercial homeowners want to change their way of thinking and add, “This is Ibiza. “
Georgieski imagines a city that hosts sustainable degrees of tourists attracted by culture and nature than by celebration.
But Unesco said in its most recent report that the recovery paintings had broken the “authenticity” of some churches and that the ancient city’s unique wooden-beamed buildings were threatened by uncontrolled development.
Restaurateur Pendoski does not disagree with Unesco or the mayor, but claims it closed despite having won all mandatory permits.
“We all share the purpose of having more visitors while protecting the lake and nature, but there has to be some local economic development,” he says.
Environmentalists argue, however, that confronting economic progression as opposed to ecological considerations is a false debate.
“We have to keep the lake blank because otherwise we will lose everything, we will lose tourism,” says diver Paskali.
Activist Vasileska also claims that obtaining entry permits is an ecological means of pollution.
“You can 30 people,” he says, “but you pollute the lake by 50,000. ” afp