White Drin

Infobox River | river_name = White DrinDrini i Bardhë

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caption = Bridge "Ura e Fshejte" on the White Drin river
origin = Žljeb mountain, north of Pejë, Kosovo
mouth = with Black Drin forms the Drin, at Kukës, Albania
basin_countries = Kosovo, Albania
length = convert|175|km|mi|abbr=on
elevation =
discharge = convert|56|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on|lk=on
watershed = convert|4964|km2|sqmi|abbr=on

The White Drin ( _sq. Drini i Bardhë, _sr. Бели Дрим) is a river in Kosovo and northern Albania, a convert|175|km|mi|adj=on-long headstream of the Drin.

Dukagjini

The Kosovo section of the White Drin flows entirely in the semi-karst Dukagjini part of Kosovo, in an arc-shaped convert|156|km|mi|adj=on-long course. The river originates in the southern slopes of the Žljeb mountain, north of the town of Pejë. The stream is originally a sinking river which eventually springs out from the strong well and falls down as a convert|25|m|ft|adj=on-high waterfall near the village of Radovac.

The White Drin first flows to the east, next to the spa of Banja e Pejës and the villages of Banjica, Trbuhovac and Zlokućan. The rest of the course is through the very fertile and densely populated central section of Metohija (Podrima region), but oddly, there is not even one large settlement on the river itself, despite many smaller villages on the river. The largest cities are kilometers away from the river (Pejë, Gjakova, Prizren) while some smaller towns Klina are closer to it.

The White Drin receives many relatively long tributaries: Lumi I Bardhë, Lumbardhi i Deçanit, Prue potok, and Erenik from the right; Istočka, Klina, Mirusha, Rimnik, Toplluga and Lumbardhi i Prizrenit from the left.

The Kosovar part of the White Drin basin comprises convert|4360|km2|sqmi|abbr=on. Here the waters of the river are used for waterworks of the big nearby towns, irrigation and power production (especially its right tributaries). At the Vrbnica-Shalqin border crossing, the river enters the eastern Albanian region of Trektan.

Trektan

The Albanian section of the river is convert|19|km|mi|abbr=on long with the drainage area of convert|604|km2|sqmi|abbr=on. There are no settlements on the river and it receives the Lumë river from the left (which also originates in Metohija, from several rivers in the Gora region). Finally, the White Drin reaches the town of Kukës where it meets the Black Drin and forms the Drin, which flows into the Adriatic Sea; thus the White Drin belongs to the Adriatic Sea drainage basin. The river is not navigable.

The entire Albanian section (and part of the Kosovan) is flooded by the artificial Fierza lake ("see Drin controversy").

References

* "Mala Prosvetina Enciklopedija", Third edition (1985); Prosveta; ISBN 86-07-00001-2
* Jovan Đ. Marković (1990): "Enciklopedijski geografski leksikon Jugoslavije"; Svjetlost-Sarajevo; ISBN 86-01-02651-6