Its catchment area extends across Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and North Macedonia[6][7] and is home to more than 1.6 million people.

[8] The river and its tributaries form the Gulf of Drin, an ocean basin that encompasses the northern Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast.

At 285 kilometres (177 miles) long,[1][9][10] the Drin is the longest river of Albania and its tributaries cross through both Kosovo and North Macedonia.

Both tributaries' confluence occurs near Kukës in northeast Albania and Drin then flows westwards through the Albanian Alps and Dukagjin Highlands, where three successive dams were erected between 1960s and late 1980s, forming 3 large artificial lakes.

The Drin then passes Vau i Dejës and drains into the Adriatic Sea through its two distributaries in Buna river and west of Lezhë.

Located in the Balkan Peninsula at the crossroad of Europe and Asia, the river basin's varied climate and topography have shaped a vast array of flora and fauna.

The White Drin originates from the Žljeb mountain, north of the town of Peja in the Metohija region of Kosovo, and flows from there through to Albania.

Without reaching any agreement, the Albanian government ordered the reservoir to be filled with water, which flooded some border areas of Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia.