Efforts by the World Bank Group to support Albania in better managing municipal waste have been hampered by political changes, a lack of political will, and a focus on incinerating waste, according to a recent report.
The Evaluation of the World Bank’s Support for Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) 2010-2020 report looks at proposed and ongoing investments in MSWM in multiple countries, including Albania and Kosovo.
According to the report, municipal solid waste is mainly generated from residential and commercial sources and has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges across the world, with growing public health, environmental, social, and economic costs. IT continues that by 2050, fast-growing large- and medium-size cities such as Tirana, will nearly double the waste generation in lower-middle-income countries and upper-middle income countries.
MSWM is at the core of the Sustainable Development Goal, one of 11 set down by the United Nations. Core tenets of it include waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and recovering. Furthermore, waste disposal in landfills should be the very last resort and governments should be actively seeking to reduce waste, greenhouse emissions and prevent climate change.
Unfortunately, Albania has not been keeping its side of the deal to the point where a project was even withdrawn.
The report states that in once case, formulating legal provisions for packaging and electronic waste (such as old computers, mobiles, fridges and similar) was not completed or followed through because of “political changes”.
Later on in the text, this is expanded on where it states that these changes include, “a lack of government commitment or effective collaboration across different levels of government (for example, with local entities) and the difficulty of sustaining commitment across administrations or in the absence of champions.”
Other key challenges reported include a lack of awareness of waste issues; lack of strategies for the sector; and lack of appropriate policies, regulations, and institutional capacity. The report states that these conditions foster an environment for “open dumping and low willingness to pay for services that limits the feasibility of financial support for MSWM initiatives.”
In another project detailed in the report, the Coastal Zone Management Adaptable Program Loan 1 Project, investments could not be operated or maintained because of “inadequate allocations in local utility companies’ maintenance budgets”. This project related to a solid waste landfill site and transfer station and although the project was funded externally, the government failed to allocate funds to maintain the project.
In a Coastal Zone Management Project aimed to support the city of Saranda’s tourism, partly through improvements in MSWM, no impacts were measured, according to the report.
Lastly, another key waste management project was suspended because of parliamentary elections but also because the responsibility for waste disposal infrastructure was transferred to the Ministry of Environment, which, according to the report, ”wanted to promote incineration as the main waste treatment solution.”
The IFC did not agree, and the project did not move forward, it states.
In recent years, the Albanian government has focussed almost entirely on waste incineration, doling out contracts for incinerators in Tirana, Vlora, Fier, and Elbasan. Three of the four tenders are currently under criminal investigation for corruption, abuse of office, money laundering and various other crimes.
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Despite this and the fact several of those involved are in prison awaiting trial or on the run, the government continues to pay the concession companies behind them.
Meanwhile, there are currently no state recycling facilities in the country and the majority of waste goes into landfill.
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