all from higher elevations and the highly irregular
seasonal flow patterns that are characteristic of nearly all streams in
the country reduce the immediate value of the streams. They erode the
mountains and deposit the sediment that created, and continues to add
to, the lowlands, but the rivers flood during the seasons when there is
local rainfall. When the lands are parched and need irrigation, the
rivers are usually dry. Their violence makes them difficult to control,
and they are unnavigable. The Buene is an exception. It is dredged
between Shkoder and the Adriatic and is navigable for small ships. In
contrast to their histories of holding fast to their courses in the
mountains, the rivers have constantly changed channels on the lower
plains, making wastes of much of the land they have created.

The Drin River is the largest and most constant stream (see table 2).
Fed by melting snows from the northern and eastern mountains and by the
more evenly distributed seasonal precipitation of that area, its flow
does not have the extreme variations characteristic of nearly all other
rivers in the country. Its normal flow varies seasonally by only about
one-third. Along its length of about 175 miles it drains nearly 2,300
square miles within Albania. As it also collects from the Adriatic
portion of the Kosovo watershed and the three border lakes (Lake Prespa
drains to Lake Ohrid via an underground stream), its total basin is
around 6,000 square miles.

The Seman and Vijose are the only other rivers that are more than 100
miles in length and have basins larger than 1,000 square miles. These
rivers drain the southern regions and, reflecting the seasonal
distribution of rainfall, are torrents in winter and nearly dry in the
summer, in spite of their relatively long lengths. This is also the case
with the many shorter streams. In the summer most of them carry less
than a tenth of their winter averages, if they are not altogether dry.

_Table 2. Drainage Basins in Albania_

Drainage basin Length of river Area of basin
(in miles) (in square miles)

Drin 174 2,263*
Seman 157 2,305
Vijose 147 1,682
Shkumbin 91 918
Mat 65 964
Erzen 56 301
Ishm 43 2