The walkshop address the theme of walking as question by trying to answer the question of what do we become when we walk by, alongside and with water.

The environmental degradation around the Albanian side of the Prespa Lake, such as near the village of Zagradec, had been ongoing since the 1970s when the Devolli river was redirected (on order of the government) to Prespa to make for the loss of water used in irrigation. Riverine sediments have piled up transforming the area into a swamp and altering the ways of life of entire communities. Having already researched knowledge transfer and activism build up in communities near endangered National Parks throughout Albania, I am particularly keen to collectively investigate and uncover questions, doubts and anxieties surrounding changing habitats, as well as possible ways for international care to take place concerning the stability of the Prespas.
Jumping on the conversation stemming from Astrida Neimainis’ Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology book and her other lectures and publications, such as How to Become Bodies of Water, I intend to open up discussion and more generally explore the issue of hydrocommons.

Thus, I bring to the International Walking Encounters /Conference the Albanian experience of learning to protect and ways of being in alongside nature, and more specifically in this case alongside hydrocommons.

The project is proposed as a walkshop alongside the Prespa Lake shore.