Establishing IMC

Acquiring a Solution for the Municipality

Shkodra municipality tried to tackle the urban waste disposal issue beginning in 1999, through the LIFE program (financed by EC). An attempt to set up the designed landfill at this point failed due to a lack of timely funding to implement the project, and to the site’s occupation by informal construction projects.

[In the framework of SEENET—Local Governments Engine of Development—re-construction of the bridges of dialogue in South Eastern Europe, funded by the Italian government, financial support for priority initiatives of each partner municipality was envisioned] The preparation of a feasibility study and the designing of a technical project (a landfill for urban solid waste disposal) was one of priorities presented in 2005 by Shkodra municipality. This priority received financing in the amount of 42,700 euros to cover the costs of preparing the feasibility study and technical proposal for the landfill.

A technical working group was set up with the following tasks:

Prepare the feasibility study and all technical and administrative documents according to Albanian and European legislation.

Make sure through information activities and an awareness campaign to inform all the citizens, the interested community, and beneficiaries, about the landfill project.

Raise funds to help make the construction of the landfill possible.

Increasing Catchment Areas and Membership

In order to make use of economies of scale and to increase the chances of financing for the investments, it was agreed that the new landfill would be constructed in a place that also fulfils two criteria: includes those inhabitants who live outside of the admin-istrative territory of the city of Shkodra, and includes all the local governments in the corridor between Shkodra and Lezha. Considerations for expanding the catchment areas of landfill were followed by a meeting with representatives of the municipalities of Shkodra and Lezha and the commune of Bushat. In this meeting the possibility to construct a regional landfill for urban solid waste disposal and to collaborate among the local government units comprising both regions of Shkodra and Lezha was discussed.

The decisions taken in this meeting were as follows:

A Memorandum of Understanding among all interested local government units was signed to formalize cooperation for setting up a regional landfill.

The feasibility study and the technical project of the landfill, it was decided, would be based on and respond to the range of needs from the local govern-ments units of Shkodra, Lezha and of Bushat and Shëngjin. Possibilities would

also be assessed to include other local government units from both Regions of Shkodra and Lezha within this cooperative initiative.

The SEENET Project office was given the responsibility of preparing within a short period of time, the feasibility study and the technical project of the landfill.

On 23 June 2005, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the mayors of the municipalities of Shkodra and Lezha and of the commune of Bushat to partner and collaborate together in order to facilitate the planning, construction and future common management of a regional landfill for the urban solid waste of their cities and their neighboring local governments. Cooperating local units undertook the following responsibilities:

Agreed on the selection of final landfill site, currently identified within the administrative territory of Bushat Commune;

Facilitate all necessary administrative procedures in order to obtain the required authorizations from the competent local and national authorities (e.g. NCTR³⁵ etc.);

Liaise and inform all relevant authorities (e.g., Qark) which may be involved in this regional initiative;

Assist and partner with the SEEnet Program during the preparation of the necessary technical studies related to the construction of the selected landfill.

Jointly Contributing Towards Implementation

The Commune of Bushat approved the construction of the regional landfill in its terri-tory with decision no.1, on 23 December 2005, based on a project designed according to European standards and relevant national legislation. The finalized feasibility study and technical project looks into a regional landfill that will:

Serve for approximately 20 years;

Cover an area housing about 235,000 inhabitants;

Have a construction cost of EUR 4.165 million divided into three phases: EUR 1 million; EUR 2,05 million; EUR 1.115 million.

The regional landfill study and technical proposal was presented for all local gov-ernment beneficiaries, respective civil society members, and environmental NGO representatives.

The municipality of Shkodra followed all legal procedures according to the Albanian legal framework for receiving the environmental permission to construct the landfill (by MEFWA,³⁶ October 4, 2006), approvals to construct the landfill by the Territory

Regulation Council of Shkodra Region (November 15, 2006) and the National Council of Territory Regulation (May 22, 2007).

Following the necessary official approvals Shkodra municipality and Bushat Com-mune, with international facilitation, organized a fundraising event attended by the central government and various potential donors. In 2008, the Albanian government allocated funds of around EUR 800,000 to implement the first phase of the project.

Construction is planned to be completed by the end of April 2009.

Extending Scope and Defining Institutional Arrangements

Since July 2007 Bushat and Shkodra local authorities have begun efforts to negotiate the institutional set up of the cooperation (IMC) that will oversee construction of a landfill and examine additional services and facilities necessary to ensure the development of an integrated waste management system. Some of the issues tackled concerning the institutional set up of IMC are:

Representation by member municipalities regarding how they will manage the site;

Research of investment opportunities in recycling activities;

Foreign investment opportunities via the Clean Development Mechanism.

Negotiations to-date have agreed on the following key steps regarding Regional Solid Waste Management:

Creation of an advisory body (Working Committee) appointed by the municipali-ties to implement solid waste programs in the region. This would consider the entire range of collection/transport/separation-and-recycling/disposal issues. The Working Committee would also appoint one (Director) or two people to ensure effective overall management of the landfill project. Relevant central government ministries (e.g., Public Works, Environment) should be invited to participate as observers in the regional organization in an ex officio, non-voting capacity.

Development of an effective community awareness/involvement program.

This component would focus initially on public awareness/education: what is happening; what are the benefits and costs of a regional solid waste strategy, and how will a cleaner city/region benefit local citizens and businesses (especially in the tourism industry). The community program would also consider the defini-tion of performance standards and monitoring procedures, and be involved in the discussion and establishment of household charges/rates: i.e., the amounts they would pay directly through household user fees and the amounts to be paid indirectly through the local commune or municipal budget.

Lay down final organization of the IMC arrangement by negotiating between the set up of a shared company and owning the landfill, with representatives

from all participating local government units on the Board tendering, or having a company owned by the commune where the landfill is located.

External International Assistance was Needed and Utilized for:

recommending the technical solution for the landfill design project;

providing information and contemporary technologies for urban solid waste disposal;

preparing necessary detailed engineering and economic analysis;

complying with European directive 1999/31/CE;

providing coordination and technical supervision (through Confederazione Italiana Servizi publici degli Enti locali, Tuscany);

Financing the cost of the feasibility study and technical project of the landfill (by SEENET Program);

Facilitating the discussion between the various local units involved concerning the institutional set up of the IMC;

Providing for various cooperation scenarios that institutionalize the joint opera-tion of landfill and waste disposal.

Challenges Faced

There is no IMC track record or templates to refer to when setting up such cooperation initiatives. Inter-municipal cooperation is quite a new experience for the Region of Shkodra, indeed for almost the whole of Albania. In the Region of Shkodra local government units through their structures and enterprises provided all public services for their administra-tive territory only. This was the first time the Region of Shkodra had the experience of providing public services with the participation of numerous local government units.

During preparation of the feasibility study and designing of the technical project it was evident that technical and engineering staff were lacking locally. As this project was quite a new experience, even at the national level, only a few technicians and engineers were competent enough to design even some components of this project. Also, with regard to the selection of the landfill site, following the existing legal framework in place in Albania, a total of ten sites were taken into consideration. Three were shortlisted and one of these three was evaluated according to given legal criteria. Such legal procedures were very demanding and difficult to abide by, given that the existing options within the region were limited.

Local residents have long held negative perceptions of the existing service standards since those standards have never abided by broader standards or criteria. The actual dumpsite for solid waste management in Shkodra was rejected by local residents.

Con-versely, the construction of a regional landfill built for many local government units to dump their garbage there seemed to worsen the perceptions of the Bushat citizenry.

The working group developed and implemented a very careful program on effective community awareness for the population of Bushat. It was explained in detail that the technical project and the contemporary technology being used to construct the landfill were safe. The importance of the landfill, and the benefits it would provide for the whole region—including each local government unit, local citizens and businesses (especially tourism)—had to be carefully explained.

Fundraising to initiate landfill construction was difficult and required a multi-year effort. Since the cost was relatively high, the municipality’s financial limitations and even those of the Albanian national government made this critical issue almost impos-sible to resolve for many years.

Open Challenges and Questions that Remain:

Ownership and management structure. This is perhaps the most important and most urgent issue to resolve;

Financial sustainability. A review of the cost of operating the facility and the status of the budget for moving forward;

Fees. Define fee structure sufficient enough to meet the operational needs (operations, financial costs, maintenance, and expansion) for the service;

Define a responsible structure for setting fees—both for tipping fees at the facility and for local collection of garbage from citizens.

Main Success Factors Are:

Planning process to solve the critical issue. The municipality of Shkodra has been intent for some time on constructing a landfill for the city and prepared docu-ments included in the Strategic Plan for Economic Development 2005–2015 of the City of Shkodra and in the Regional Plan of Shkodra and Lezha;

Involving all the interested actors in the process and coordinating goals and objectives with the programs and plans of the involved municipalities;

Public campaigning to transparently explain the project, the process of imple-mentation and the benefits of the project.