Integrated Cross-Sectorial Plan of Tirana-Durres Area

EP2- Protection and management of
surface and groundwater resources
The plan dictates and supports the protection
of the environment from the liquid and
solid waste of the urban system as well as
industrial manufacturing structures, both
within and outside the urban areas.
The development of urbanization should be
accompanied by a controlled and planned use
of the territory, surface and groundwaters,
and a controlled use of the water catchment
basins for each territory administered by the
municipalities of the region. Water utilization
and processing should be based on annual
reports on their pollution monitoring, by the
regional municipalities and line ministries.
Water system
The water catchment basins that are
located in the metropolitan region need to
be regenerated by restoring the supporting
infrastructure, such as: irrigation drainage
channels, water pumping systems and water
supply systems.
In the absence of the opportunity to use these
territorial assets to the benefit of agriculture,
they should be transformed into recreational
areas serving to the public interest,
accompanied by buffer zones to protect them
from urban development. The line ministry
should enable the use of these assets in
function of LGUs services.
The transformation of the two rivers, Erzen
and Ishem, into environmental potentials
coated by green corridors, interconnected
with the parks of the region, requires the
fulfillment of the following conditions: 24
1. Constructing waste management plants
and necessary infrastructure facilities in each
of the pollutant urban centres. Regarding
the management of liquid and solid regional
waste, a 6% increase in population in the
urban centres should be considered by 2030.
2. Interrupting the discharge of all untreated
urban and industrial waters into the Ishem
and Erzen rivers and channeling them to the
respective infrastructure.
3. Constructing the embankments for the
rivers Ishem and Erzen and revitalizing their
beds.
4. Reconstructing the green belts that
function as buffer zones along the river
banks, which will enable protection from
water corrosion. Buffer green belts will help
to recreate and approach wildlife as well as
enable their unhindered movement in the
region’s natural habitat.
5. Constructing the paths serving to
recreation. Developing bicycle movement
axes along the banks and green belts.
Accompanying with relaxation areas in
support of ecotourism within these territories.
6. Creating protected and managed territories
for the areas of the regional river deltas and
estuaries.
Drinking water
The drinking water supply system covers
almost the entire area of Tirana and Durres.
There is room to increase capacities and
improve the quality of sector services,
especially for the fact that, for a sustainable
development of the region, the necessary
investments must be made in advance to
cope with the population growth envisaged
by 2030. It is necessary to improve the
administrative and managerial direction of
the sector, to orient the services towards the
principles of control and full cost recovery,
and the recognition, protection and use of
groundwaters.
The regional municipalities must not only
protect existing water resources but also
those territories that represent a potential
as water supply areas for the future. Limiting
urban development in the territories
overlapping with these resources should be a
priority for the LGUs.
24
Taken from the material of the Albanian Geological Survey (AGS), preamble of the study on “Monitoring the dynamics of the
riverbeds in the rivers of Albania in the mid- and lower stream, and measures proposed to stabilize the situation”, February 2016
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