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A4C, Albania
Site-No. 943
Water for a Blue Adriatic. Four-City Project in Albania with World Bank funding. In the public’s perception, Albania still figures as undiscovered territory on Europe’s outer edge.
This should change if Albania can increase the appeal of its as yet undeveloped tourism possibilities. Doing so would clearly involve meeting the European-standard for water supply and wastewater disposal. Travel agencies simply prefer not to send vacationers into regions where water is a scarce commodity in hotels. Although Albania does not suffer from a lack of water, fresh water flowing from a household tap to be enjoyed whenever the urge arises is not something that can be taken for granted in that country. The lion’s share of wastewater flows untreated into the Adriatic, which, seen from above along the coasts, is anything but blue.
There is now motion in the water sector in four cities – Durres, Fier, Lezhe, and Saranda – because the Albanian government, four local water utilities, Berlinwasser International, and the World Bank have started to work together here. Berlinwasser International has been executing a five-year management contract for the A4C Project – Albania Four Cities: three port cities and an industrial city 50 kilometres inland.
The project extends over a catchment area with a population of around 650,000. Initially, the funding situation at the four Albanian water utilities did not appear particularly promising: turnover was €3.6 million in 2003 while EBITDA was stuck deep in the red, with minus onethird of turnover. Before the team made up of German, Albanian and British experts could get started on the work of markedly improving the water supply and wastewater removal systems, increasing efficiency of the plants, reducing water loss and, ultimately, reaching a state where the local water utilities could operate at a profit, they had to invest in the effective management of relationships with agencies and decision-makers at the local and federal levels as well as in their own personnel policy.
In addition to the problems posed by geographic distance – the four cities are spread out all along the county’s northsouth axis – the project had linguistic hurdles to overcome as well. Also, rather than being able to set to work as usual with a fine technological basis to draw on, the team started off with a fine technical display – of improvisation, when heavy machinery was not in operating condition or fuel was short. When the project began, the water supply in Saranda, for example, was available for barely two hours a day. Since then, water has been made available to residents in Fier and Saranda ahead of schedule.
Today, anyone connected to the city drinking water system in Saranda can enjoy water from the tap without interruption for 11 hours each day. There are good prospects for progress with respect to continuous water supply in the other cities as well. Over 22 kilometres of new water pipes are going to be laid, which will further reduce water losses and further improve the level of distribution. The World Bank, which regularly measures project progress according to three technical and two economic performance indicators showed its satisfaction with the general progress of the project thus far in the mid-term review.
Parameters for Success
The World Bank regularly appraises the status of the Four City Project. Three technical and two economic criteria are the major focuses of assessment:
This should change if Albania can increase the appeal of its as yet undeveloped tourism possibilities. Doing so would clearly involve meeting the European-standard for water supply and wastewater disposal. Travel agencies simply prefer not to send vacationers into regions where water is a scarce commodity in hotels. Although Albania does not suffer from a lack of water, fresh water flowing from a household tap to be enjoyed whenever the urge arises is not something that can be taken for granted in that country. The lion’s share of wastewater flows untreated into the Adriatic, which, seen from above along the coasts, is anything but blue.
There is now motion in the water sector in four cities – Durres, Fier, Lezhe, and Saranda – because the Albanian government, four local water utilities, Berlinwasser International, and the World Bank have started to work together here. Berlinwasser International has been executing a five-year management contract for the A4C Project – Albania Four Cities: three port cities and an industrial city 50 kilometres inland.
The project extends over a catchment area with a population of around 650,000. Initially, the funding situation at the four Albanian water utilities did not appear particularly promising: turnover was €3.6 million in 2003 while EBITDA was stuck deep in the red, with minus onethird of turnover. Before the team made up of German, Albanian and British experts could get started on the work of markedly improving the water supply and wastewater removal systems, increasing efficiency of the plants, reducing water loss and, ultimately, reaching a state where the local water utilities could operate at a profit, they had to invest in the effective management of relationships with agencies and decision-makers at the local and federal levels as well as in their own personnel policy.
In addition to the problems posed by geographic distance – the four cities are spread out all along the county’s northsouth axis – the project had linguistic hurdles to overcome as well. Also, rather than being able to set to work as usual with a fine technological basis to draw on, the team started off with a fine technical display – of improvisation, when heavy machinery was not in operating condition or fuel was short. When the project began, the water supply in Saranda, for example, was available for barely two hours a day. Since then, water has been made available to residents in Fier and Saranda ahead of schedule.
Today, anyone connected to the city drinking water system in Saranda can enjoy water from the tap without interruption for 11 hours each day. There are good prospects for progress with respect to continuous water supply in the other cities as well. Over 22 kilometres of new water pipes are going to be laid, which will further reduce water losses and further improve the level of distribution. The World Bank, which regularly measures project progress according to three technical and two economic performance indicators showed its satisfaction with the general progress of the project thus far in the mid-term review.
Parameters for Success
The World Bank regularly appraises the status of the Four City Project. Three technical and two economic criteria are the major focuses of assessment:
- Continuity of the water supply
- Percentage of households receiving a minimum of two hours of water supply per day
- Improvement of water quality
- Collection rate: the ratio of income compared to total bills for water sales
- Working ratio: a figure portraying the economic efficiency of the water utilities
