ALBANIA Deep Dive Water Security Assessment and Action Planning Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Table of Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... 4 1 Background and Introduction ............................................................................................... 11 1.1 Scope and Objectives of the Water Security Report of Albania ............................................... 11 1.2 The Water Security Diagnostic Framework ........................................................................... 11 1.3 The One-Water Methodology ............................................................................................... 12 1.4 Setting the scene: Albania´s main physical, socio-economic and governance features ............ 15 2 Country Diagnosis ................................................................................................................. 19 2.1 Endowment ........................................................................................................................ 19 2.1.1 Supply ............................................................................................................................... 20 2.1.2 Demand ............................................................................................................................. 21 2.2 Architecture........................................................................................................................ 22 2.2.1 Institutions and Regulatory Framework ................................................................................ 23 2.2.2 Infrastructure (Water Supply and Sanitation/Irrigation and Hydropower) ............................... 31 2.3 Performance ....................................................................................................................... 34 2.3.1 Water Resources Management ............................................................................................ 35 2.3.2 Management of Water Risks ................................................................................................ 38 2.3.3 Service delivery .................................................................................................................. 41 2.4 Outcomes .......................................................................................................................... 47 2.4.1 Social outcomes.................................................................................................................. 47 2.4.2 Environmental outcomes ..................................................................................................... 48 2.4.3 Economic outcomes ............................................................................................................ 50 3 Future Trajectories ................................................................................................................ 54 3.1 Future climate and socioeconomic scenarios ......................................................................... 54 3.2 Projections of select water security indicators ....................................................................... 55 3.2.1 National projections on water availability, water demand and water stress ............................. 55 3.2.2 Flood risk ........................................................................................................................... 58 3.2.3 Drought risk ....................................................................................................................... 59 4 Country Narrative .................................................................................................................. 61 Section B – Action Planning ........................................................................................................ 67 5 Identification and Selection of Actions ................................................................................. 67 5.1 Identification and prioritization of actions ............................................................................. 67 5.2 Ranking of actions through an MCA approach ....................................................................... 72 5.3 Description of Priority Actions and Pathway to increase Water Security .................................. 75 6 References ............................................................................................................................. 76 Annex I: List of indicators used in the O-WM ............................................................................. 79 2 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Annex II: Results of indicator assessment ................................................................................. 83 Annex III: International treaties signed by Albania ................................................................. 111 Annex IV: Long list of actions to increase water security in Albania ........................................ 113 Annex V: Scores given to different actions - result of the workshop ....................................... 118 3 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Executive Summary Water Security is Water security is defined as “The availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of more than coping water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level with resource of water-related risks to people, environments and economies� (Grey and Sadoff 2007). scarcity Water security is critical to attaining development goals by delivering benefits for people, the economy, and the environment, and mitigating water risks amplified by climate change. Water Security Against this background, the World Bank’s Water Global Practice initiated a Water Security Diagnostic Diagnostic Initiative1 in 2017. The initiative seeks to make the best use of the World Initiative Bank’s technical experience, instruments, and financial resources to produce studies that influence senior policymakers beyond line ministries. The initiative contributes to attaining the World Bank’s vision of achieving a “ Water-Secure Vision World for All� by sustaining water resources, delivering services, and building resilience. Conceptual The World Bank’s conceptual Water Security Diagnostic Framework recognizes that not framework all water-related challenges are equally significant in their impacts on people, ecosystems, and economies. A consistent approach is important to identify the most severe risks and significant opportunities. The concept determines water security outcomes from how water is managed and used. These are results of water sector performance, resource management, service delivery, and risk management. The performance, in turn, depends on water sector architecture, institutions and infrastructure and all areas are conditioned by water endowment. Therefore, the framework is structured around four main topical areas or dimensions: (i) water outcomes, (ii) water sector performance, (iii) water sector architecture, and (iv) water endowment. One-Water The One-Water Methodology aims to establish a consistent and systematic approach to Methodology diagnosing water security at country and regional levels without being overly prescriptive. It contributes to operationalizing the WSDF, identifying and benchmarking critical current and future challenges around water security in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries and proposing follow-up activities at the country level to improve water security. Albania water This report provides a high-level assessment of Albania´s current water security security report status and drivers of future change with the aim of highlighting the complex water issues that Albania must tackle to enhance its water security. The report collates knowledge and provides an overview of water security challenges, risks and opportunities, following the O-WM. This report is intended to highlight main areas where water security can be strengthened now and in the future. The development of this report involved stakeholders’ consultations through conducting several scoping interviews with the country ’s key water stakeholders and organizing two workshops in Albania. Diagnostic of The results of the diagnostic indicate that Albania derives significant benefits from Albania water using its abundant water resources, and is also highly dependent on secure water security supply. However, the country needs to find ways to further leverage its water endowment and reduce the risks associated with climate change – greater variability, increased risk of 1 https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water/publication/water-security-diagnostic-initiative 4 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA floods and droughts (as already seen in the 2022 drought in spring and floods in November) - and fully reap the benefits of future opportunities (e.g., tourism development, irrigated agriculture). To do so, the following major challenges spanning over the different water security dimensions need to be addressed: • Architecture, and particularly aspects related to a) strengthening the governance, the institutions and the sector regulatory framework and b) the development of infrastructure for improving sanitation coverage (especially in rural areas), related to wastewater treatment, water storage/dam capacity, and the status of water supply networks to reduce non-revenue water. Improvements in these sectors should best include also investments in green solutions and renewable energy technologies to reduce the dependence on hydropower for electricity generation. Likewise, water management and the associated legal framework needs to be adapted to comply with EU environmental policies and legislation. • Performance, and particularly of water supply and sanitation services, management of emerging challenges such as droughts, and improved monitoring and management of surface and groundwater bodies (quality and quantity). In addition, the implementation of all water-related EU-Directives needs to be strengthened. • Outcomes, with a special focus on supporting the development and upgrading of the agricultural sector, and of irrigation in particular. The opportunities to develop further the irrigation sector and increase overall the productivity of agriculture are very large and could also help retaining population in the rural areas if appropriate and innovative development plans are put in place. However, to keep a significant percentage of workforce in the agricultural sector (40% of workforce as of today), large-scale farming needs to be combined with small-scale, high-revenue agriculture having a low environmental impact (like organic agriculture). Actions for To enhance water security in Albania, several actions have been identified and enhancing water prioritized, together with the country’s key water stakeholders. These actions aim security in to address the current and future challenges and risks identified in the country diagnostic Albania and take advantage of emerging opportunities. These actions will help to either maintain or to step up and increase in a progressive way the current level of water security for certain dimensions or sub-dimensions towards the desired water security outcomes. The list of action is as follows (more details on the specific content of the actions can be found in chapter 5.1 and in Annex IV): 1st priority actions: • Improve Capacity Development/Human Resource Plan at utility plus Operation & Maintenance level regarding the Water Supply and Sanitation sector • Improve monitoring of water bodies in line with the EU-Aquis • Improve dam safety and sustainable operation • Support shift to more efficient, sustainable agricultural farms, including irrigation modernisation • Design and implement a national disaster management plan 2nd priority actions: • Development and/or revision of river basin management plans and the development of a financial strategy to secure the implementation of the associated program of measures • Improve infrastructure planning and management regarding the water supply and sanitation sector 5 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA • Strengthen utilities to improve service and financial sustainability, including a successful utility aggregation • Advance the implementation of EU water directives - development of DSIP (Directive-Specific Implementation Plans) for all WFD-sister Directives (beyond the ones for the DWD and UWWD that are finalized and to be adopted) • Reactivate strategies/ action plans to reduce Non-Revenue water and to increase energy efficiency of water supply and sanitation systems 3rd priority actions: • Complete and/or maintain the register of water uses • Further improve flood protection in line with the EU Floods Directive • Review and further develop the tariffing system for water uses • Close the investment gap of the National Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Strategy 6 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Abbreviations ADF Albanian Development Fund AKM National Environment Agency AKUM Agency of Water Supply, Sewerage and Waste Infrastructure ALBCOLD National Committee of Large Dams AMBU Water Resource Management Agency BAU Business as Usual DWD Drinking Water Directive ECA Europe and Central Asia ERRU Water Regulatory Authority EUSIWM EU Support to Integrated Water Management FRMP Flood Risk Management Plan FSI Fragility State Index GWD Groundwater Directive IAWD International Association of Water Service Companies (Danube River Catchment Area) IBNET International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities ICPDR International Commission for the Protection of the Danube IPPC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ISRBC International Sava River Basin Commission IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management JMP Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation MARD Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MCA Multi-Criteria-Analysis MIE Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy NRW Non-Revenue Water O&M Operation and Maintenance O-WM One Water Methodology PHI Public Health Institute PoM Programme of Measures RBD River Basin District RBMP River Basin Management Plan RCP Representative Concentration Pathways SDG Sustainable Development Goal SHUKALB Water Supply and Sewerage Association SSP Shared Socioeconomic Pathways UK Utility Company (Albanian) UKT Tirana Water and Wastewater Utility UNEP-WCMC UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund UWWTD Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive WASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WB World Bank WFD Water Framework Directive 7 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA WHO World Health Organization WRI World Resources Institute WSA Water Security Assessment WSDF Water Security Diagnostics Framework WSS Water Supply and Sanitation WWTP Wastewater Treatment Plant 8 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA List of figures Figure 1: Water Security Diagnostic Framework and its different dimensions ............................................ 12 Figure 2: The 10-Steps-Process of the country One-Water-Methodology .................................................. 13 Figure 3: River Basins Districts in Albania ............................................................................................... 18 Figure 4: Results of indicator assessment regarding Albania’s water endowment ...................................... 19 Figure 5: Spatial variation of seasonal variability of water availability in Albania ........................................ 20 Figure 6: Water withdrawal per capita in Albania at the county level ........................................................ 21 Figure 7: Assessment of indicators related to the architecture dimension ................................................. 23 Figure 8: Sector institutions at national, regional and local level in Albania ............................................... 25 Figure 9: Location of hydropower plant projects in Albania ...................................................................... 33 Figure 10: Hydropower projects on Balkan Rivers (2022 Update) ............................................................. 33 Figure 11: Assessment of indicators regarding the Performance of water sector in Albania across three sub- dimensions ........................................................................................................................................... 35 Figure 12: River Basin Districts (RBS) of Albania ..................................................................................... 37 Figure 13: Riverine flood risk as percentage of GDP in Albania................................................................. 40 Figure 14: Drought risk in Albania .......................................................................................................... 41 Figure 15: Assessment of indicators regarding the outcomes of water sector in Albania across three sub- dimensions ........................................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 16: Water stress in Albania at county level ................................................................................... 50 Figure 17: Economic water productivity (USD/m3) per county in Albania .................................................. 51 Figure 18: Agricultural water productivity (USD/m3) per county in Albania ................................................ 52 Figure 19: Population and GDP per capita projections for Albania under three SSPs .................................. 55 Figure 20: Annual and monthlywater availability in Albania for historical and three future scenarios ........... 56 Figure 21: Surface water and groundwater demands in Albania for historical and three future scenarios .... 58 Figure 22: Annual water stress in Albania for historical and three future scenarios .................................... 58 Figure 23: Flood risk in terms of GDP for 2050 based on Pessimistic scenario determined by AQUEDUCT ... 59 Figure 24: CMIP5 ensemble projected change in monthly precipitation (in mm) relative to the 1986 –2005 baseline under RCP8.5 .......................................................................................................................... 60 9 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA List of tables Table 1: Summary of the stakeholder consultations undertaken in Albania ............................................... 13 Table 2: Share of economic sectors in the gross domestic product (GDP) 2021......................................... 16 Table 3: Roles and responsibilities of water institutions ........................................................................... 26 Table 4: Current status of the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment, flood hazard maps, flood risk maps and Flood Risk Management Plans ............................................................................................................... 39 Table 5: Key Performance Indicators used by WRA ................................................................................. 42 Table 6: Financial Performance of WSS sector in 2020 and 2021 ............................................................. 44 Table 7: Water availability annually medians and interquartile range annually historically and for three future scenarios.............................................................................................................................................. 57 Table 8: Total water demand and water stress ranges for the pessimistic scenario ................................... 57 Table 9: Priority list of actions for increasing water security in Albania ..................................................... 68 Table 10: Criteria and weights used to rank priority actions to improve water security in Albania ............... 72 Table 11: Summary of the MCA assessment and ranking of actions based on the 7 criteria ....................... 73 Table A12: International treaties signed by Albania based on international database .............................. 111 Table A13: Qualitative ranking of the actions based on low (red), medium (yellow) and high (green) using the multi-criteria approach ........................................................................................................................ 118 Table A14: Quantitative ranking of the actions obtained from the workshop of multi-criteria action planning in Albania ........................................................................................................................................... 120 10 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Background and Introduction 1.1 Scope and Objectives of the Water Security Report of Albania This report provides a high-level assessment of Albania’s current water security status and drivers of future change with the aim of highlighting the complex water issues that Albania must tackle to enhance its water security. The report collates knowledge and provides an overview of water security challenges, risks, and opportunities, following the One-Water Methodology. This report responds to key questions such as: why does water security matter for Albania, what risks threaten its water security, how is its performance constrained, and what measures are needed to overcome these gaps to enhance water security in Albania. The report is meant for policy and decision makers working in the space of water security or sectors for which water is a critical input, as well as non-state actors working on water security. This report is intended to highlight the main areas where water security can be strengthened now and in the future. Water security matters even more so in the future as climate change will be experienced predominantly through the hydrological cycle, and bringing about increased vulnerabilities that impact citizens, businesses, and natural habitats. The findings in this report are based on existing information and analysis of development documents and plans and other scientific studies, as well as ongoing dialogue between the World Bank, government representatives, and other partners in the country. Thus, while it provides a framework and an initial set of recommendations for action, more detailed analysis should be undertaken in comprehensive river basin management plans, sector investment plans, and other key planning and implementation functions of the sector. The report is organized as follows: • The remainder of Chapter 1 provides a short overview of the Water Security Diagnostic Framework, the One-Water Methodology, and a general overview of key physical, and socio-institutional features of Albania. • Chapter 2 provides a diagnosis of current water security status of Albania. • Chapter 3 describes Albania´s future trajectories imposed by global climate and socio-economic scenarios, and drivers related to ongoing and foreseen development plans. • Chapter 4 elaborates a country narrative of the main water security challenges, risks, and opportunities that Albania is and is likely to face in the near future. • Chapter 5 outlines the action plan required to address and overcome main challenges and risks and to build on the existing and future opportunities. 1.2 The Water Security Diagnostic Framework Water security is a complex, multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral concept. It concerns the building of a water secure future for the people, the economy, and the environment in the face of local and global challenges. Achieving water security is therefore the overarching goal of water management and includes leveraging productive aspects of water for human well-being, livelihoods, environment and socio-economic development, and the management of the destructive impacts of water such as floods, droughts, and pollution to protect societies, economies, and the environment. Water insecurity is typically driven by a combination of environmental, socio-economic, technological, and governance factors. The most water insecure countries combine challenging hydrological environments with weak institutions and chronic under- investment in water infrastructure. Even when water is abundant, and the hydrologic regime is benign, mismanagement (for example, poor pollution regulation) or inadequate infrastructure investments can lead to water insecurity. 11 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Water security cannot be adequately assessed by any single integrative index. In addition, water security often intersects with other security concerns, including energy, food, climate change and overall national security. As an alternative to establishing a strict methodology for measuring water security, the Water Global Practice of the World Bank has developed a Water Security Diagnostic Framework (WSDF) (Figure 1). The WSDF intends to establish a consistent and structured approach to diagnosing water security without being overly prescriptive. This approach is important to identify the most severe risks and significant opportunities, facilitate global comparisons, and benchmark countries. The WSDF seeks to analyze the relationship between different dimensions, including: the country’s water endowment (given and subject to change due to climate change) and its linkage to social, economic and environmental outcomes. This is done by examining the role of water sector architecture dimension, encompassing infrastructure and institutions, in the performance of the water sector in managing water resources, delivering water services, and mitigating water-related risks. Figure 1: Water Security Diagnostic Framework and its different dimensions (Source: World Bank 2019) 1.3 The One-Water Methodology The One-Water Methodology (O-WM) has been developed to operationalize the WSDF using an innovative perspective which maximizes the use of available information and resources to catalyze the implementation of high-impact actions; with a process that enhances a dynamic learning cycle that continuously strengthens the methodology and accelerates the systematic identification of new gaps and new opportunities, hence, the implementation of new actions to improve the water sector performance, involving, in a participatory manner, different stakeholders at local and regional level. The O-WM aims to establish a rapid, consistent, and systematic approach to diagnosing the four dimensions of water security as defined in the WSDF at country and regional level. The O-WM also developed an innovative set of indicators structured in the form of a maturity matrix that not only allow for mapping and assessing aspects difficult to describe with quantitative indicators; but also suggest next steps to be followed to put countries on the pathway towards water security. The O-WM for country analysis and strategy comprises three phases and each phase includes several steps as shown in Figure 2: Phase A: Preparatory and Diagnosis Phase: This phase defines the current water security status of a given country and identifies foreseen challenges, risks and opportunities in the light of national and global drivers 12 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA using a set of indicators representing the four water security dimensions of the WSDF combined with a qualitative review of additional country-specific and other sources of information as well as interaction with the country’s key stakeholders through scoping interviews and at one onsite workshop . The main output of this phase is a detailed narrative of a country's water security status along the four water security dimensions of the WSDF. The list of quantitative and qualitative indicators used to assess a country’s water security is provided in the Annex I. Phase B: Action Planning and Decision Phase: Based on the diagnostic assessment, this phase supports countries in the identification of pathways to enhance their water security through a planning and selection process for priority actions including the organization of one onsite stakeholder workshop and the use of multi-criteria analysis. The main output of this phase is a roadmap that includes a set of priority actions that should ideally feed into a Strategic Action Plan that builds on the momentum to accelerate policy reforms and investments to achieve a long-term water security vision. Phase C: Learning phase and preparation for next cycle: Accumulation and analysis of experiences and lessons learned during the implementation of the O-WM and preparation for the next One-Water cycle. Figure 2: The 10-Steps-Process of the country One-Water-Methodology Methodology of this One-Water Study for Albania The different phases entail several steps that combine analytical work and stakeholder consultations through a number of scoping interviews and two dedicated workshops. Table 1 summarizes the main features of the stakeholder consultations. Table 1: Summary of the stakeholder consultations undertaken in Albania Type of consultation Purpose Stakeholders participating - AMBU (Water Resource Step 1: Scoping interviews - Identify from the key country Management Agency) and meetings experts what are the main water - AKUM (Agency of Water security challenges and where Supply, Sewerage and Waste efforts need to be focused. Infrastructure) 13 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Type of consultation Purpose Stakeholders participating - Collect information to elaborate - MIE (Ministry of Infrastructure qualitative indicators. and Energy) - Ministry of Agriculture and - The scoping interviews took place Rural Development in November-December 2022 - ERRU (Water Regulatory Authority) - ALBCOLD (National Committee of Large Dams) - SHUKALB (Water Supply and Sewerage Association) - University of Tirana - AMBU (Water Resource Step 3 and 4: Workshop I - Presentation and discussion of the Management Agency) “Exploring water security water security diagnosis draft and - AKUM (Agency of Water challenges, risks and future trajectories. Supply, Sewerage and Waste opportunities in Albania� Infrastructure) - Workshop I took place on December 15th, 2022 in Albania. - MIE (Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy) - ERRU (Water Regulatory Authority) - ALBCOLD (National Committee of Large Dams) - SHUKALB (Water Supply and Sewerage Association) - AKM (National Environment Agency) - PHI (Public Health Institute) - UKT (Tirana Water and Wastewater Utility) - GIZ Albania - ADA-EU project: "EU Support to Integrated Water Management in Albania – EUSIWM� - ValuADD - AMBU (Water Resource Step 6 and 7: Workshop - Discuss and validate the water Management Agency) II “Exploring priority actions security narrative emerging from the - AKUM (Agency of Water to increase water security diagnosis, future trajectories and Supply, Sewerage and Waste in Albania� Workshop I. Infrastructure) - Identify priority actions to improve - MIE (Ministry of Infrastructure water security. and Energy) - ERRU (Water Regulatory - Workshop II took place on Authority) February 6th, 2023 in Albania. - ALBCOLD (National Committee of Large Dams) - SHUKALB (Water Supply and Sewerage Association) - AKM (National Environment Agency) 14 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Type of consultation Purpose Stakeholders participating - PHI (Public Health Institute) - UKT (Tirana Water and Wastewater Utility) - GIZ Albania - SECO Albania - ADA-EU project: "EU Support to Integrated Water Management in Albania – EUSIWM� - ValuADD - ADF (Albanian Development Fund) 1.4 Setting the scene: Albania´s main physical, socio-economic and governance features Geography. Albania is located at the Western edge of the Balkan Peninsula in South Europe. The country has a total area of 2.9 million hectares and consists of two distinct geographical regions: highlands/mountains above 300 m (about three quarters of the territory) and coastal flat plains with low hills in the vicinity of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas (MARD 2016, MARD 2019). Climate. Albania is located at the northern part of the Mediterranean zone. The country has a coastal plain in the West and fairly high mountains: the highest point reaches 2751 m at the border with Kosovo and Macedonia, while many ridges exceed 2000 m in the northern, central and southern parts of the country. The rainfall is seasonal with only 14% of the rain falling in the period June to August. The wettest months are October to December. The climate varies with topography: hot and dry summers with frequent thunderstorms, wet and mild winters in the coastal plains; higher summer precipitation and cold to severe winters with heavy snow in the mountains. The average annual precipitation is 1485mm, with annual rainfall averaging 1000mm on the coast and as high as 3000mm in the mountain regions. Most of the precipitation drains into the rivers which then flow into either the Adriatic or Ionian Sea. The temperature distribution throughout the year is also seasonal with summer temperatures being 20°C higher than winter temperatures. The average temperature of the country is around 12°C, but with high variations across the territory (MARD 2016). Population. Population census figures show that total population has decreased from 3.13 million in 2000 to 2.81 million in 2021 (Instat 2023). The main cause of the steady decrease in the national population is due to emigration which exceeds 500 000 people over the last 20 years. This has resulted in a more urban-based population, i.e., in 2014 the ratio of urban to rural was 57% and 43%, respectively, compared to 2005 when only 47% of the population were urban and 53% were rural (World Bank 2022; MARD 2016). Minority ethnic groups, which include Egyptians, Greeks, Macedonians, Montenegrin, Roma, and Vlachs, represent approximately 2% of the total population of Albania (World Bank 2015). Politics. Albania is a parliamentary republic. In June 2014, Albania was awarded candidate status by the EU. The Council decided to open accession negotiations with Albania in March 2020. In July 2022, the Intergovernmental Conference on accession negotiations was held with Albania. The Commission started the screening process. Economy. Albania is a middle-income country which has made enormous strides in establishing a credible market economy over the last two decades. GDP stands at 18.2 billion US$ (in 2021), with a 3.7% growth forecasted in 2023. GDP per capita is at 6494 US$ (also in 2021) (World Bank 2022). In the last years, Albania suffered serious economic shocks, through an earthquake in November 2019, shortly followed by the COVID- 15 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA 19 pandemic, which affected the Albanian economy with its dependence on tourism and remittances quite seriously (World Bank 2023). Services is the largest economic sector within Albania. The most important services activities in Albania include trade, transportation, and communications, followed by financial services, real estate, and public administration. The tourism sector is a crucial economic sector providing employment opportunities to a large part of the population. It generates foreign exchange earnings, promotes local businesses, and supports the development of infrastructure and services. Industry is a relatively small sector in Albania. Its contribution to GDP grew from just over 8% in 2007 to 20.1% in 2022, mostly through improved performance in extracting and mining (World Bank 2022, MARD 2016). Due to its continental Mediterranean environment, with four distinct seasons and relatively abundant water and land resources, biophysically Albania has a comparative advantage in agricultural development. Given this reality, it is remarkable that the country is a net importer of agricultural commodities. Albanian agriculture meets only 30 percent of the country’s demand for food and feed. The government hopes to boost agricultural production by providing financial support to farmers and facilitating private investments in the agro-processing sector (US Department of Commerce 2023). The main crops are vegetables, fruit trees and vineyards, grains and olive groves. Although there are wide-ranging differences between agro-ecological zones, agriculture in Albania requires additional water application in summer as rainfall during this season is only about 20% of the total annual precipitation. Water deficits between June and August vary between 400 and 500mm, making irrigation necessary for effective crop production (50% of the cropland is irrigated from reservoirs, producing about 80% of the total agricultural output). Drainage on the other hand is important in winter to alleviate flooding, erosion and water logging (Namara et al. 2022). Table 2: Share of economic sectors in the gross domestic product (GDP) 2021 (Source: World Bank 2022) Sector Contribution to GDP Contribution to employment Services 48.4% 43% Industry 20.1% 20% Agriculture 19.1% 36% Energy. Hydropower is the main source of electricity production in Albania, occurring in all river basins and accounting for 97% of Albania’s current domestic electricity generation. It is the only country in the Western Balkans where several large new hydropower plants have been built in recent years, and for several years its renewables incentives scheme only supported hydropower, not solar or wind. In total, Albania has approximately 626 reservoirs, which provide an accumulating capacity of 5.6 km 3 for irrigation, flood protection and power generation. However, its annual electricity generation has fluctuated massively in recent years (as in 2022, due to a drought spell), production varies from approximately 2900 GWh in very dry years to almost 6000 GWh in very wet years. This leads to high imports of electricity in all but the very wettest years (MARD 2016, Gallop/Ralev 2022). Water resources. Albania has relatively abundant freshwater resources. The available average quantity of freshwater is estimated at 26.9 km³ totally, or 9,347 m3/capita/year (total internal renewable water resources; FAO 2022), which is one of the highest rates in Europe. Freshwater sources in the country comprise natural springs, rivers, lakes, and groundwater aquifers. The water resources in Albania are distributed, hydrographically, across seven river basin districts (RBD), which all flow in a westerly or northwesterly 16 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA direction across the country and have as their major river systems, from north to south, the Drini-Buna Rivers, Mati River, Ishem and Erzeni Rivers, Shkumbini River, Semani River, and the Vjosa River. These river systems drain not only the land mass of Albania, but also large parts of inhabited areas in Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro. According to AQUASTAT (FAO 2022), approximately 81% of the total internal renewable water resources (≈23.5 km3/year) are from surface water sources (springs, rivers, and lakes), and the rest are from groundwater sources (≈6.2 km3/year). However, these abundant water resources have an uneven seasonal distribution where the available water decreases significantly during the months of summer. Surface waters in Albania are influenced by nitrogen and phosphorus through point and non point sources. Rivers in central Albania, particularly the Semani, Shkumbini, and Ishem Rivers, are heavily polluted with macronutrients, falling into category IV or V. Agricultural activities and untreated urban waste water significantly contribute to the high nutrient concentration and microbial activity. This pollution extends to nearby waters lagoons and seashores, resulting in clear degradation and limitations on their functions due to human impact. Water and Sanitation. In 2022, approximately 96% of the total population was connected to a safe drinking water supply system (piped water: 80%), and 99% had access to at least basic sanitation services. However, this data stems from the SDG reporting, and uses a different definition for “safe� water supply a s other institutions. Albanian Key Performance Indicators from AKUM put water supply coverage at 78%, sewage coverage at 54% (83% in urban areas, 13.7% in rural areas) and total coverage with wastewater treatment at 14.5%. As such, direct wastewater discharge into water bodies has led to extensive and severe contamination of coastal areas, rivers and riverbeds. Citizens receive their water from individual wells, small water supply systems managed by the communal authorities, illegal wells or connections to authorized networks (MARD 2016). The water supply for drinking purposes comes mainly from natural springs and underground water sources (83%), except for the Tirana metropolitan area which gets a portion of its supply from a surface water source in the mountains (17%) that has been dammed to create a reservoir, and therefore must be treated, and Maskuria reservoir which takes the water from Maskuria Lake to supply Kavaja Touristic Area (Golem and part of Durres beach area) (World Bank 2015). Water management and governance. Following its territorial reform and the creation of 58 municipalities, Albania has embarked on a comprehensive water and sanitation sector reform Central to these reforms is the establishment of 58 municipal utilities (decentralized utilities), that on behalf of its municipal shareholders, are delegated the responsibility for service provision in the entire jurisdiction of the municipality. The aggregation is progressing, and it now aimed at the creation of 15 regional utilities. Such reform is seen as very important to increase the sustainability and quality of water services for domestic use, and important for the vigorous tourism sector in the country, which is also a key source of income and employment. For water management purposes, the eight watersheds of Albanian’s large rivers have been combined into seven main hydrographical units designated as river basins districts (see Figure 3) in accordance with EU water acquis, mainly the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (MARD 2016). By end of 2022, the country had five out of seven plans only in place. Three of them are aligned with some of the key objectives of the WFD (Mat, Ishëm and Erzen) and will be adopted in the beginning of 2023. These three plans are expected to be approved and aligned with the planning cycle 2022-2027. The Drini Buna and Semani RBMPs were developed earlier in 2019 and are somehow compliant with basic requirements of the WFD but do not meet adequately the requirements of the characterization of water bodies. 17 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 3: River Basins Districts in Albania (Source: MARD 2016) 18 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Country Diagnosis The country diagnosis of the water security of Albania is performed for the four dimensions of water security (endowment, architecture, performance, and outcomes) following the methodological approach provided in the O-WM. The overall assessment of each dimension is provided using radar charts that summarize the ranking of different quantitative and qualitative indicators on a range band from 0 to 5 as defined in the O- WM. A 0-1 rating refers to a range band Low (i.e., the country is at a very unfavorable status or performing poorly for a particular indicator and e dimension), 1-2 rating is a Low-Medium (i.e., the country is underperforming although some progress has been made towards the desired outcome for the dimension), 2-3 is Medium (i.e., the country is performing at an average level compared to other countries), 3-4 is Medium- High (i.e., the country is performing above average and showing good progress towards the desired outcome), and 4-5 is High (i.e., the country is at a high favorable status, outperforming and can be considered as best practice). 1.5 Endowment Water endowment refers to the total available water resources. The total available water resource includes the renewal “blue water� resources (surface runoff and groundwater recharge), non-renewal (fossil groundwater), and non-conventional sources of water, including desalinated and reused wastewater. The water endowment of Albania is assessed by looking at both water supply (quantity and quality) and its demand. Figure 4 provides the results of the indicator assessments for water endowments that Albania is rich in water resources with low water withdrawals. However, Albania’s resources face potential risks due to above-medium seasonal variability, and a lower-than-average water quality. The results of the indicator assessments for water endowment are provided in Figure 4. Figure 4: Results of indicator assessment regarding Albania’s water endowment 19 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA 1.5.1 Supply Water availability Albania is a water-rich country with water average per capita availability of 14,280 m3/capita/year, which is among the highest in the ECA region (Lushaj 2016). According to AQUASTAT (FAO 2022), approximately 81% of the available water resources (≈26.4 km3/year) are from surface water (springs, rivers, and lakes), and the rest are from groundwater sources (≈6.2 km3/year). Dependency ratio Albania’s water availability mostly relies on national sources, whereas only 10% of its water flows in from neighboring countries (FAO 2022). This figure acknowledges both surface and groundwater, yet approximately 35% of the total river basin area of Albania’s rivers is located outside of its national borders (Lushaj 2016). Albania has three major trans-transboundary lakes, shared with Montenegro (Lake Shkoder), North Macedonia (Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa), and Greece (Lake Prespa). Also, some of its major rivers originate in other countries like the Vjosë River in Greece, and the Drin River in Kosovo (White Drin) and North Macedonia (Black Drin). Interannual and seasonal water variability Albania faces medium-to-high seasonal variability of its water availability. Albania’s hot and dry summer results in a national average medium seasonal variability of its water availability. A clear pattern of increasing variability is observed on a North-to-South axis (Figure 5). In the long-run (I.e., variability between years across 1950 -2010), Albania’s interannual water availability proves relatively stable. Figure 5: Spatial variation of seasonal variability of water availability in Albania (Source: Gassert 2014) Water quality The drinking water quality in Albania is lower than the average of the ECA region. The overall drinking water quality is obtained using the number of age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years lost per 100 000 persons (DALY rate) due to exposure to unsafe drinking water. A score of 100 indicates a country 20 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA has among the lowest DALY rates in the world (≤5th-percentile), while a score of 0 indicates a country is among the highest (≥95th-percentile). Albania scores in the medium range with a score of 50.2, which is lower than the ECA average (57) (Environmental Performance Index 2022). Ambient water quality is addressed in section 2.4.2. 1.5.2 Demand Water withdrawals per source of water There is untapped potential for sustainably increasing Albania’s water withdrawals . Albania’s current water withdrawals of 323 m3/capita/year (0.73 km3/year)2 is approximately 2% of its total water availability. Water withdrawal is higher for regions in the Albanian coastal plains (Figure 6), which are either highly populated (e.g., Fier) or irrigated (e.g., Lezhë). Acknowledging the current high-water availability in the country, increasing water withdrawal may be sustainability achieved. However, it is expected that cross- sector competition over water resources will arise due to the extensive use of water for hydroelectric power generation, which is estimated to be over 10.9 km3 annually. Hydropower generation alters the spatiotemporal distribution of river flows, but unlike agriculture or thermal cooling, it does not consume water in the same magnitude. However, the associated reservoir storage leads to an increase in surface evaporation, and may be in conflict with environmental flow regimes. Figure 6: Water withdrawal per capita in Albania at the county level (Source: Gassert 2014) Groundwater plays a key role in the supply of drinking water, whereas surface water is more important for irrigation, industrial uses, and hydropower. Approximately 75% of the drinking water in Albania is sourced from groundwater or natural springs, and the rest is from surface water (MARD 2016). Specifically, the metropolitan region of Tirane water supply relies on the artificial ‘Bovilla’ reservoir and is 2 These total demands only include agriculture, municipal and industrial use. 21 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA complemented by groundwater (Miho et al. 2009). Likewise, the touristic area of Kavaja partially uses water from the artificial lake of ‘Maskuria’ during the dry season (MIE 2019). Sectoral water withdrawals Agricultural water demand, mostly for irrigation, is the largest water user in Albania. Albanian agriculture relies partially on irrigation due to rain seasonality. Irrigated cultivated land is currently spread across over 250 000 hectares and is based upon a system of lift-pumps, reservoir and canals. As a result, the agricultural water withdrawal in Albania is approximately 68% of the total water withdrawals (roughly 0.50 km3/year; FAO 2022). Local estimates imply that annual water irrigation withdrawals reach 1 km 3/year. Albania’s municipal water withdrawal is almost twice the ECA countries’ average. Municipal water withdrawals are approximately 0.15 km3/year and equivalent to 21% of the total water withdrawals (or 79.8 m3/capita/year; FAO 2022). This value is almost twice the ECA countries’ average of 12%. Albania’s industrial sector and its water use are relatively small. Approximately 10% of the total water withdrawal (0.08 km3/year; FAO 2022), are used for industrial production and processes. 1.6 Architecture The water sector architecture of Albania is assessed regarding institutions and infrastructure for water supply and sanitation, irrigation and hydropower. The results of the indicator assessments for architecture are provided in Figure 7. Since “architecture� agglomerates aspects from legal framework t o adequacy and performance of water infrastructure the picture below is heterogenous by default. 22 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 7: Assessment of indicators related to the architecture dimension. The assessment is provided for a) Institutions, b) Water supply and sanitation & c) Irrigation and hydropower 1.6.1 Institutions and Regulatory Framework Figure 7(a) presents the results of the indicator assessments for institutions. At an overall national level (not in the water sector specifically), in terms of public administration Albania made some progress in building capacity in line ministries to implement regulatory impact assessments, adopting guidelines for public consultations , setting up the IT systems for integrated planning and generally increasing the implementation rate of the National European Integration Plan 3 . Regarding the Fragile State Index, Albania ranks 121st (of 179 countries) and falls in a stable medium category, having continuously reduced its “fragility� over the last years – despite the double shock of an earthquake in 2019 and COVID-19 pandemic. Albania's ranking compares closely to Greece (124th) and Montenegro (119th). The FSI explores different dimensions related to its level of cohesion, economic and social performance and political situation. The political dimensions specifically instigate the availability of public services and the presence of institutions that provide services to people including in water. 3 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_21_5276 23 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Implementation of integrated water resources management principles is work in progress. The “degree of IWRM implementation� is measured by the respective SDG indicator 6.5.1 (UNEP-DHI 2020) and Albania reaches 47 (out of 100) and rates low to medium. The national legal framework is based on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles 4 and applied by the majority of relevant authorities. However, there is need to adopt and implement the respective plans to operationalize IWRM in the country. Looking at the subdimensions that underpin this index (enabling environment 49, institutions and participation 58, management instruments 47 and financing 33), institutions and participation shows greatest progress while financing remains a challenge. The aspects of management and instruments are deepened in the following chapter. Legal framework Albania made great strides to review its water law to embrace Integrate Water Resources Management and ensure alignment with EU Directives. A water resource law (law 111/2012 "On Integrated Water Resources Management") is in place since 2012. The law aims at protecting and improving the water environment and water resources, ensuring their rational exploitation, fair distribution, protection from pollution, and set forth establishment of central and local institutional frameworks required to implement national policies of management and administration. The 2012 law was amended in 2018 (law No. 6/2018). This also led to the establishment of a water resource management agency dealing with all EU-related aspects of IWRM. A new “IWRM law� is drafted, and the adoption is expected in 2023 and will ensure full alignment with EU Directives. AMBU, the Agency for the Management of Water Sources, leads the inter-institutional working group and drafted the new law, which will be adopted soon to actively include a broad range of relevant stakeholders from within and outside the water sector. Water allocation is legally defined but the practice of enforcement and focus on resource protection needs improvement. Water allocation is prescribed in the IWRM law and detailed by the DCM No. 550 dated 15/07/2020 (by law) on permit authorisation concession for use of water resources. Inspections and enforcement of compliance with permit conditions are done under the National Environment Agency of the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, the Water Resources Management Agency AMBU under the Prime Ministry and the National Inspectorate for the Protection of the Territory. Concluding, allocation of water based on data and monitoring of the collective impact of all uses on the water resource remain an area for improvement, justifying a medium-high rating of the majority of the legal and policy framework. Institutional organization, roles, and responsibilities The existing institutions cover all sector functions and “sharpening� the roles and responsibilities between existing institutions will lead to a more conducive and effective framework. Figure 8 provides an overview of key sector institutions in Albania related to the water sector and Table 3 provides a detailed description of their roles while some points of emphasis are elaborated below. 4 The Global Water Partnership's definition of IWRM is widely accepted. It states: “IWRM is a process which promotes the co -ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems�(UNEP-DHI 2009). 24 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 8: Sector institutions at national, regional and local level in Albania (Sources: Respective organization websites, World Bank 2015, WAREG 2021 and interviews) National bodies of administration and management of water resources: Article 7 of the IWRM law distinguishes central and basin level bodies for the administration and management of water resources. The Council of Ministers, as the executive branch that constitutes the Government is led by the Prime Minister. Thereunder the National Water Council (NWC) is a central decision-making authority chaired by the Prime Minister. The NWC determines the national policy on water resources. The Ministries being responsible for the management of water resources in the respective sectors are the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection is responsible for the external monitoring of the drinking water quality. Under the authority of the NWC and the Ministries, a number of agencies and institutions, which are governing and managing water use for various purposes, are operating. The Water Resource Management Agency (WRMA/AMBU) is established as a state-funded public legal entity under the Prime Minister. Its mission is competent water resource management for the purpose of meeting the populations demand while respecting ecosystems’ sustainability, promoting competing uses, and prioritizing for economic benefits. The agency is established and functions in compliance with the regulation and pursuant to Law 111/2012 on the Integrated Management of Water Resources, as amended, to deal with all EU-related aspects of integrated water management (transposition, implementation and reporting). AMBU leads the inter-institutional working group for drafting the legal package in the field of water resources management. AMBU is responsible for flood risk management legal framework according to the EU Flood Directive requirements and for the preparation of FRMPs, while the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is responsible for irrigation and drainage/flood protection infrastructure on agricultural land. The responsibilities are defined by the law, but in practice sometimes division of responsibility are not clear. The National Civil Protection Agency (AKMC) also has a role during flood emergency situations. Integrated management of water resources is increasingly indispensable and requires augmented coordination. At the regional level, Albania is working on flood risk management in the 7 river basins of Drin-Buna, Mati, Ishëm, Erzeni, Shkumbini, Semani, VJosa. In each basin a preliminary flood risk assessment was performed, and work is currently ongoing to create flood hazard maps, flood risk maps, and 25 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA finally, flood risk management plans. The integrated management of water resources at the basin level is done through the councils of water basins and the water basin administration offices, branches of AMBU. The River Basin Councils are set up under the Water Resources Management Agency chaired by the largest prefecture in the basin. Meeting the needs of various users for economic and social development on one side, and environmental protection on the other, make the integrated management of water resources indispensable. The operationalisation of the new law and implementation of the various regional plans need enhanced coordination between different ministries responsible for areas such as infrastructure or agriculture, National Councils and Agencies and other stakeholders under AMBU coordination. Within the relevant organisations, continuous IWRM capacity development is required to respond to changing circumstances and new challenges. Counter-steering the negative impact of staff fluctuation remains important in water resources and in water supply and sanitation service provision. Exemplary, two ongoing initiatives create a foundation to address the challenge targeting AMBU and relevant administrative levels at national and basin level: the EU Support to Integrated Water Management (EUSIWM), funded by EU and implemented by ADA, includes a component to develop a Capacity Development Plan. It aims to establish a permanent learning and development platform, implement a short- and long-term trainings as well as a Stakeholder Consultation & Involvement Plan.. A second project with the support of the Sweden International Development Agency (SIDA) aims to increase the institutional capacities of the Water Resources Management Agency also targeting national and regional administration levels. The initiatives do not only target river basin management offices of the selected river basins under the preparation of RBMPs, but also the main administration and the other offices. Water supply and sanitation roles and responsibilities are distributed across different institutions and local governments, which are responsible for provision of water and sewerage services to the population through public utility companies. The national umbrella Water Supply and Sewerage Association of Albania (SHUKALB) aims to improve the management, to make it more efficient, sustainable and effective in alignment with the laws and regulations in force in Albania. An independent Water Regulatory Authority (WRA) was established in 1998 to “ensure that water supply and sewerage service providers deliver the highest possible quality at a fair price and financially sustainable manner�. However, the status of groundwater wells, pumping stations, distribution systems and cisterns is not monitored systematically. Inadequate maintenance and repair, lack of metering and operational control have together resulted in excessive water losses, which are estimated to be larger than 60% of the total water production for all cities (MARD 2016) and are further analysed under “service delivery� below. The utilities are generally overstretched because they are obliged to integrate rural water supply systems initially managed by community groups or by the former communal administration. They are also tasked with service provision in previously unserved areas while tackling the challenge of overall efficiency improvements (such as of non-revenue water). Service provision was aggregated into 13 regional utilities as part of sector reforms and upon agreement by the Local Government Units (LGUs). Generally, personnel costs are high and O&M cost coverage only achieved in 12 out of 58 water supply and sanitation (WSS) utilities (ERRU 2021). Table 3: Roles and responsibilities of water institutions (Sources: Respective organization websites, World Bank 2015, WAREG 2021 and interviews) Level Institution Responsibilities National bodies of administration and management of water resources Ministry of • Line Ministry responsible for setting the main priorities of the water sector National Infrastructure and • Development and implementation of the Water Sector Reform Energy (MIE) • Ensure technical assistance in support of water supply and sewerage companies 26 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Level Institution Responsibilities National bodies of administration and management of water resources National Agency of • Government entity specialized in water supply and sewerage, wastewater treatment Water Supply, and waste management Sewerage and • Technical support the implementation of policies and strategies in the field of water Waste supply and sewerage, wastewater treatment, territorial planning and waste Infrastructure infrastructure (AKUM) • Body of the Council of Ministers for state control over the safety of dams Albanian National • Represents Albania in the International Commission of Large Dams (ICOLD). Committee of Large • National Secretariat of Large Dams (NSLD) under the Ministry of Infrastructure and Dams (ALBCOLD) Energy • Control of design, construction, operation, and maintenance of dams • Central decision-making authority in water resource administration National Water National • Main inter-institutional body constituted by the relevant Minsters and chaired by the Council (NWC) Prime Minister • Under Prime Minister, secretariat and executive authority of NWC • Leading inter-institutional working group (composed by Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance Water Resource and Economy, Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, Ministry of Defense, Ministry National Management of Health and Social Protection, Albanian Geological Survey, and National Agency (AMBU) Environmental Agency) for drafting the legal package in the field of water resources management • Integrated water resources management, including EU-related aspects related to transposition, implementation and reporting. Ministry of Health National • Define standards for drinking water Institute of Public • Monitor water quality (surface water, drinking water and wastewater) Health National Ministry of Agriculture • Irrigation and drainage and Rural • Construction, operation, and maintenance of national irrigation and drainage system Development (dams and canals). Independent Regulatory Authority, established in 1998 with the following main responsibilities: • WRA exercises regulatory functions in the water supply and sewerage sector • Licensing of service providers National Water Regulatory • Approval of WSS service tariffs Authority (WRA) • Setting uniform standards and rules in the sector • Monitoring the performance of WSS companies • Reporting on the sector condition National Water Supply and • Association of water supply and sewerage utilities established in 2000 Sewerage Association • Capacity building, advocacy and awareness raising in the Albanian water sector of Albania (SHUKALB) National Ministry of Finance • Finance capital investments in the sector • Policies among others related to environment, water quality Ministry of Tourism • Issuing environmental permits National and Environment • Monitoring environmental legislation enforcement and compliance (MoTE) • Controlling water pollution • National Environment Agency (AKM) thereunder is responsible for permits and ensuring legal compliance 27 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Level Institution Responsibilities National bodies of administration and management of water resources Public agency to encourage a sustainable, balanced and cohesive socio-economic development at local and regional level, founded in 1993 and endowed with a special legal status in 2009 to undertake: • Management of projects financed by the Albanian Government and/or various donors whose aim is the local and regional development; • Provision of financial assistance in forms such as grants, loans, guarantees, etc. for National Albanian Development the local government units to the improve the socio-economic infrastructure and Fund local public services; • Provision of technical support in the implementation, follow-up and the supervision of investments to improve socio-economic infrastructure and the local public services • Provision of technical assistance and carrying out trainings to increase the institutional capacities of the local government • Accomplishment of various activities to serve the implementation of policies and the instruments of the local and regional development. • Advisory institution of the Albanian Government which carries out its activities in the Albanian Geological National field of land sciences throughout the whole territory of the country. Survey (SHGJSH) • Main actor in the groundwater sub-sector • The National Civil Protection Agency prepares plans for civil emergency management and ensures their implementation, and directly supports the Ministry of Defense in its coordination functions and related responsibilities relating to civil emergency situations at national, prefecture and commune and municipal levels. National Civil • National coordination procedures are maintained by the 24-hour National Operations National Protection Agency Centre for Civil Emergencies (NOCCE) which has direct links with all operational (AKMC) forces and others stakeholders, including Civil Emergency Sectors established in each prefecture. • Through the Technical Consultative of Civil Emergencies, the Agency creates and maintains inter-institutional relations and coordinates disaster management activities in the country • Under the WRMA for 7 main river basins • The RBCs are the responsible bodies at local level for integrated water resources River Basin Councils Regional management in the relevant basin, including the conservation and protection of (RBC) water resources, as well as an equitable distribution of the water resources within the concerned river basin. • 7 WSS utilities are municipal owned the other 13 are owned by LGU and Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy (MoIE). • As per law no. 139/2015 on Local Self-Government, in the field of infrastructure and public services, municipalities are responsible for the following on their territory or Local Government jurisdiction: 1. Production, treatment, transmission and supply of drinking water; 2. Local Units (LGU) and Collection, removal and treatment of polluted water; 3. Collection and removal of municipalities rainwater and flood protection in residential areas; • Under the responsibility of the mayor can also be the prevention of illegal interventions in the water supply network for drinking water and sewage as well as the network of irrigation and drainage channels. Water Supply and • Water and sanitation service provision. proposal of tariff Sewerage Regional • Aggregation of service areas has moved forward (see above) Companies • Berat Water Supply and Sewerage Company is an example of a regional utility Strategic planning The improvement of the water sector is one of the five priorities of the Government of Albania. Albania´s National Strategy on Water Supply and Sanitation Sector was adjusted in 2022 and is being implemented through the latest water sector reform. For more than 10 years Albania has established a 28 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA benchmarking and monitoring system where all water utilities report data on regular basis. Indicators are defined in the National Water Sector Strategy and both MIE/ERRU are responsible institutions to track progress. Data accuracy remains a big challenge. In addition, there is the National Strategy of Water Resources Integrated Management (NSIWRM) for the period 2018-2027 in place. Albania is mainstreaming SDGs through the National Strategy for Development and Integration (NSDI) 2022-2030. The NSDI is also the core document that combines the EU integration agenda with the country’s development goals . Albania’s Government investments for the WSS sector are high (capital) and 90% of state budget for water and sanitation goes to the water supply sector only. The sanitation sector is therefore chronically underfinanced. The 5-year Business Plans serve as an instrument for improving the management of WS utilities by the actions planned in order to improve the Key Performance Indicators. Currently in the sector, mainly large and medium-size WS utilities have 5-year business plans. The new tariff methodology approved by WRA in December 2021, was set up as on the condition that the 5-year business plan document for utilities that apply for tariffs should cover up to 100% of the Capital Costs of the activity. According to WRA, in 2021 the medium-small utilities did not have a business plan, however due to the establishment of the 13 regional utilities, there is a need to develop new business plans for the regional utilities. During the year 2021 the investments from the state budget have been focused, but not exclusively, towards the water supply systems of urban centers. This follows the short-term objective undertaken by the central government through new investments to provide uninterrupted water supply service to 58 out of 66 urban centers until the end of 2023 (WRA 2021). The total investments for the period 2022-2023 are 50,387,457 ALL of which 29,248,504 ALL will be covered by AKUM and 11,061,463 ALL by foreign investments (information provided by AKUM). Due to the complexity of the integration process and more concretely of the transposition of EU acquis Albania has set up a legal and institutional framework focusing on the achievements of the needed milestones until its integration. On the core of these structures are the interinstitutional working groups (IWG). All stakeholders at ministerial, department, and utility level are aligned, however, more active participation is needed in IWG. Also, better data exchange is needed. Data validation and auditing exists, but is considered relatively week and needs improvement. The latest assessment report of the European Commission released in October 2022 stated: “Limited progress was made in further aligning the EU acquis on water management, chemicals and environmental crime� (EC 2022). To ensure progress with regards to the EU water acquis as outlined above, Albania needs to substantially increase the budgetary resources and implementation capacity of the key national water agencies and adopt a capacity development plan. Under the “Water Negotiations and Investment Planning Support � (NIPS) Project, AKUM is drafting a National Capacity Plan to be completed within June 2023. In addition, the water quality and quantity monitoring is insufficient compared to the current compliance, management and protection needs. The Water Resources Management Agency (AMBU), together with the National Environment Agency (NEA) and other water monitoring agencies, should urgently program and implement a national water monitoring program with sufficient resources (EC 2022) A national water supply and sanitation strategy is in place. The National Strategy of Water Resources Integrated Management 2018-2027 was approved by DCM No. 73 dated 7 February 2018 and has five strategic objectives: including the sustainable use of water resources, the attainment of good water quality in all water resources by the year 2027, disaster risk reduction and management for drought and floods, increase of sound scientific knowledge on water and climate issues, and application of inclusive and sustainable water management practices that yield equitable profits to all involved stakeholders (FAO 2018). For the implementation of the Strategy figures and budgets have been identified. Specifically, the action plans will address the rehabilitation and modernization of water supply infrastructure. 29 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Albania conducted a water sector reform in May 2022. The country decided to aggregate 57 water utilities to only 13. The government is now the main shareholder of the 13 water supply companies. The reform in the water supply sector will be supported through a loan provided by the World Bank. The National Agency of Water Supply, Sewerage and Waste Infrastructure (AKUM) is currently implementing the Albania National Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Modernization Program (2022-2027). The objectives of the Program are to improve operational and financial performance of water supply and sanitation (WSS) utilities and increase access to safely managed water supply services. The program is mainly funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the Government of Albania, and to a smaller extent by the Government of Switzerland. Total funding provided is USD 141.30 million, of which more than half is provided by IBRD. The regulator WRA is well established and put 10 key performance indicators (KPIs) in place . The KPIs are defined and monitored by Law no 812 “on the Regulatory Framework of the Water Supply and Wastewater Disposal and Treatment Sector� (1996). Albania’s KPIs are published in the Annual Performance Reports prepared by the water regulatory authority Albania’s KPIs are used in benchmarking between water supply utilities. Cooperation A solid level of transboundary management is established and needs further efforts to conclude ongoing negotiation processes, operationalise cooperation mechanisms and start monitoring. The seven RBDs are well delineated in terms of territorial and hydrographic borders and the composition of the River Basin Councils (RBCs) are defined for: 1. Drin-Buna Water Basin (21 members), with its RBC office based in Shkodra, 2. Mati Water Basin (19 members), with its RBC office based in Lezha, 3. Ishëm Water Basin (15 members), with its RBC office based in Durres, 4. Erzeni Water Basin (15 members), with its RBC office based in Tirana, 5. Shkumbin Water Basin (19 members), with its RBC office based in Elbasan, 6. Semani Water Basin (31 members), with its RBC office based in Fier, 7. Vjosa Water Basin (25 members), with its RBC office based in Vlora A National Water Resources Cadastre was established at AMBU in 2020 and in addition, in 2019 and agreement was signed on data population of the national water Cadastre between AMBU and the Institute of Geosciences and Energy, Water and Environment (IGJEUM). The National Water Resources Cadastre is a systematic compilation of data concerning the water resources of the country, but there are some challenges on its functions and operation reported (e.g. regarding actual volumes of water used/extracted which are included/reported only to a limited extent). International cooperation is regulated by international agreements and conventions, which are part the legal framework in Albania. As per the international database (see Annex III) used here, Albania signed 10 treaties, some of them very old and related to specific issues such as hydropower use and navigation and some key ones outdated. For example, the treaty on a permanent commission for transboundary freshwater issues of 2003 between Albania and Greece has expired and there is only one legal act of the National Territory Council of 2020 on adopting the protected areas boundaries, were Vjosa River is added. Albania is part of several conventions ratified by law, such as the Aarhus Convention (ratified in 2000), the ESPOO Convention (ratified in 2006), the Barcelona Convention (ratified in 2000) and the Helsinki Convention (ratified in 2014). Two recent Agreements between Albania and Montenegro were formalised in 2018 and 19, the agreement on establishing transboundary cooperation for water resources management and the establishment of the Special Commission on transboundary water administration, chaired by the deputy Minister of the Ministry for EU and Foreign affairs. The Memorandum of Understanding for the management 30 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA of the extended transboundary Drin Basin (of 2011 signalled the initiation of coordinated action at the Drin Basin level (shared between Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Greece), after the Drin Dialogue that launched in 2009, in Podgorica, Montenegro. The ongoing negotiation processes include a decision on a permanent commission for transboundary freshwaters issue between Albania and Kosovo (it is not yet finalised. Due to these ongoing processes and the fact that data sharing and monitoring processes are yet to be fully established, the overall rating of the level of operationalisation of international treaties is medium-high. 1.6.2 Infrastructure (Water Supply and Sanitation/Irrigation and Hydropower) Figure 7(b) and 7(c) above show the overall assessment of the water supply and sanitation and irrigation and hydropower, respectively, across different indicators for Albania. Water supply and sanitation infrastructure Due to the age and condition of the infrastructure, a 24-hour supply is not guaranteed throughout the country. The continuity of service of piped water supply systems is on average only 14.9 hours and may be classified as unreliable in many towns. On the other hand, Albania is trying to push for a 24h water supply and increased continuity of services. In this context, the problem of the extremely high NRW must be tackled step by step. The average NRW in Albania is 65.4%. The value is an estimate, as there is usually no sufficient water metering (bulk meters, household meters, etc.). The reasons for this high percentage are twofold. On the one hand there are technical losses due to leakages, on the other hand there is a high number of illegal connections or customers who do not pay sufficiently or not at all for their water consumption. There are also bottlenecks in the energy supply, especially during droughts. Many systems are not gravity fed and must pump groundwater, and it is difficult to ensure a 24h water supply. Albania is heavily dependent on hydropower. The Water Supply and Sewerage Association of Albania (SHUKALB) therefore requests more support with regards to improved management and finance for infrastructure rehabilitation. Most funding agencies such as e.g., EBRD focus mainly on sanitation financing. The Albanian Government currently works on the implementation of a budget planning tool to prioritize upcoming investments. The scope of integrated Albanian Financial Management Information System (AFMIS) is to maximize the efficiency and transparency of budget planning, execution, and reporting. The total water supply coverage was 77.6% in 2021, which is a slight improvement to 2020 with 77.5%. Albania´s piped water supply coverage and the country’s total sanitation coverage by sewer facilities is within the range of the regional average of the western Balkans, but the infrastructure was insufficiently maintained in the last decades, demonstrated by the unreliability of the supply system and high NRW. The total national water supply coverage is 77.6% with an increasing tendency. The local regulator WRA estimated the total wastewater sewerage coverage at 53% in 20215 (up from 52% in 2020). Villages often lack sanitation facilities at all and need prioritization. The capital Tirana is still without a functioning wastewater treatment plant. The share of safely treated wastewater is only 14.3%. 49% of wastewater is at least treated on a basic level according to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program. Irrigation and Hydropower infrastructure Hydropower is the main source of electricity generation in Albania, yet it relies on old, low- maintained infrastructure, and is highly affected by droughts. Hydroelectricity accounts for 97% of Albania’s total domestic production. Production capacity varies widely between 2900 GWh in very dry years 5 The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program reports a total sanitation coverage by sewer facilities of 79.5% in 2018. 31 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA to approximately 6000 GWh in very wet years. The connection of electric grids between Albania in its neighbouring countries (Montenegro and Kosovo) allows partial fulfilment of the electricity demand during the dry years. Yet even the expensive electricity imports cannot fully supplement domestic generation (MARD 2016). Hydropower generation in Albania is spread out across the country (see figure 9), yet it mostly relies on 24 large dams, of which 17 are over the age of 30 years. Dam safety, management, and operation rely to a large extent on old standards, and some dams suffer technical problems. ALBCOLD (2022) estimates that almost 500,000 people are living in downstream risk zones in case of dam failure. putting downstream urban populations at risk. In fact, around 75% of the national production capacity is in the Drini Cascade (consisting of six dams; ALBCOLD, 2022). An ongoing nationwide survey aims to set specific action plans for each reservoir. Furthermore, over the last decade, Albania has contracted to build at least 517 small hydropower plants, of which 104 have been set into operation before 2015 (MARD 2016). 32 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 9: Location of hydropower plant projects in Albania (Source: MARD 2016) Figure 10: Hydropower projects on Balkan Rivers (2022 Update) (Source: Schwarz 2022) Most of Albania’s 600 reservoirs are aging and insufficiently maintained. Albania dams’ storage capacity is almost 1400 m3 per capita. Reservoir’s functions in Albania are diverse including hydropower generation, irrigation, fishing, water supply, recreational uses, and flood risk mitigation. The last irrigation dams have been built through the 1990s, and most of the dams’ age is over 50 years. Dam operation, monitoring, and maintenance is under the responsibilities of ALBCOLD (for hydropower), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the local municipalities (for irrigation). Yet, due to overall low 33 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA maintenance and monitoring, reservoirs are often partially clogged by sediment, and suffer from technical problems, which put downstream populations at risk (ALBCOLD 2022). Estimates suggest that actual retention is approximately 57% of the reservoirs’ designed capacity (MARD 2016). The irrigation infrastructure in Albania consists mostly of open canals, which require high maintenance, and are costly and inefficient. Although rehabilitation is ongoing, additional efforts are required. In Albania, approximately 360 000 hectares of cultivated land (out of almost 700 000 hectares) are equipped with irrigation infrastructure, mostly built prior to the 1990s. System rehabilitation took place over 25 000 hectares in the Western lowlands, yet 110 000 hectares are not operational (MARD 2016). Irrigation systems are based on open canals and mechanical lifting pumps and require modernization to increase its environmental and economic efficiency, and to reduce operational costs. Over 600 irrigation reservoirs are spread throughout the country with a designed capacity of 506 million cubic meters, potentially supplying half the irrigation water use. Yet, due to sedimentation, it is estimated that its actual retention capacity is around 290 million cubic meters. It is estimated that roughly an additional 500 million cubic meters of irrigation water are pumped directly from rivers. Furthermore, almost two-thirds of the reservoirs have major technical damage which requires attention to ensure dam safety (MARD 2016). Whereas past irrigation systems were designed to serve large-medium scale agricultural complexes, current irrigation systems must adapt to providing water for small, household-scale farms. In some cases, farmers collect water in small reservoirs or use groundwater to deal with non-operational irrigation infrastructure. Recently, the Albanian government has been investing to implement more efficient irrigation methods. 1.7 Performance Figure 11 provides an overview assessment of the performance dimension of the water sector in Albania across the three sub-dimensions: a) Water resources management b) Management of water risks and c) Water service delivery. 34 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 11: Assessment of indicators regarding the Performance of water sector in Albania across three sub-dimensions, a) Water resources management, b) Management of water risks c) Water service delivery 1.7.1 Water Resources Management The results of the indicator assessments for water resources management are provided in 11a. Strategic planning of water quality and quantity Albania´s National Integrated Water Resources Management Strategy (2018-2027) forms the basis for the management of water resources in the country in compliance with EU water directives. The strategy has five strategic objectives, including: (i) promotion of sustainable use of water resources, (ii) the attainment of good water quality, (iii) disaster risk reduction and management for drought and floods, (iv) increase of sound scientific knowledge on water and climate issues, and (v) application of inclusive and sustainable water management practices that yield equitable profits to all involved stakeholders. The strategy contains a detailed diagnosis of the situation of these four challenges and an associated action plan that describes proposed measures, expected results, and financing required. The implementation of the national strategy should have been done through the National Sectoral Program for Integrated Water Management (2018-2030), but hasn’t been approved by end of 2022, thus, currently financing and implementation is done through a 3-year action plan with contributions from line ministries involved in the implementation. The need for capex is financed by domestic and foreign financing, such as by state budget or donor support in the form of grants or loans for the most part. This encompasses state´s budget from several institutions, including the ministries responsible for water supply and sanitation, irrigation and drainage, environment, energy, and the water resources management agency to a large extend. Financing is not secured, and the strategy specifies the degree of fulfillment of the goals will depend on financing 35 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA availability. This is currently one of the main barriers to proceeding with its implementation. The required financing is equivalent to 2 900 mill Euros (388 368 055 000 LEK), and around 68% is required to ensure water availability and sustainable use. Moreover, 19% for management of water quality, 14% for the management of water risks, and less than 1% for water quality and water resources management. The National Strategy outlines the budget projections that will be required per annum for the implementation of the different objectives. Monitoring of the implementation falls under the responsibility of the Water Resources Management Agency. Different ministries oversee the measurement of the performance indicators. The action plan provides detailed information on expected results, performance indicators, and potential risks. The current level of implementation is below the proposed targets, areas where some progresses have been achieved include within the water management, the adaptation of the legal framework to comply with key directives such as the Water Framework Directive, Drinking Water Directive (DWD) and the Bathing Directive (BD), among others. Further efforts are required to comply with other key directives such as the Flood Directive (FD), Nitrates Directive (ND), Groundwater Directive (GWD) and the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Also, Albania is in the process of developing the RBMPs following the requirements of the WFD, and to support the management of water quantity and economic uses in the six river basins, although water quality aspects have still very limited consideration yet in the plans. Likewise, the development of monitoring networks for evaluating the ambient status of surface and groundwater bodies remains insufficient. Reference conditions have been established but the actual assessment is still missing. Operational planning of water quality and quantity Progress in developing and implementing river basin management instruments in compliance with the Water Framework Directive (WFD) has been achieved although important gaps remain. Albania is organized into seven RBDs: Drini Buna, Mati, Ishëm, Erzen, Shkumbini, Semani, and Vjosa. The River Basin Authority is AMBU, but there are four decentralized River Basin Councils (RBCs) supporting AMBU in the implementation and updating of the river basin management plans. By end of 2022, the country had five out of seven plans only in place. Three of them are aligned with some of the key objectives of the WFD (Mat, Ishëm and Erzen) and will be adopted in the next few months (beginning 2023). These three plans are expected to be approved and aligned with the planning cycle 2022-2027. The Drini Buna and Semani RBMPs were developed earlier in 2019 and are somehow compliant with basic requirements of the WFD but do not meet adequately the requirements of the characterization of water bodies. Vjosa and Shkumbini RBDs do not currently have river basin management plans aligned with the WFD but is foreseen that such plans will be developed in the next few years. Among the RBDs with plans available, important gaps remain in the assessment of environmental status, given that not all parameters are measured, and the periodic monitoring of water bodies is also insufficient. The monitoring infrastructure for monitoring the ambient status of water bodies is insufficient due to limited funding and lack of capacities. These monitoring gaps affect surface water bodies, both in terms of insufficient monitoring of ecological and chemical status, as well as quantity and quality of groundwater bodies. The limited monitoring also has implications on the assessment of available resources and economic uses since these are heavily relying on estimates and not actual monitoring. All plans do contain a draft economic analysis of water uses and an estimate of non-cost recovery estimates. All these plans have outlined a general program of measures (PoM), although important details such as costs and implementing institutions information are missing. 36 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 12: River Basin Districts (RBS) of Albania (Source: VENDIM Nr. 696, date 30.10.2019) Groundwater is a strategic resource for drinking water but is still insufficiently managed. Around 70% of the Albania´s drinking water is supplied from groundwater. Yet, the legislation is not yet compliant with several of the measures outlined in the Groundwater Directive (2006/118/EC). Particularly, there is insufficient monitoring and assessment of the chemical and quantitative status of groundwater bodies in many parts of the country. The Albanian Geological Institute oversees the monitoring ambient groundwater but is lacking financial and technical means to meet the monitoring requirements. The country also faces challenges in monitoring water abstractions, since not all service providers report abstractions, there are significant illegal abstractions, and there isn´t a register of water abstractions as such in place. Likewise, in several RBDs the establishment of water protection zones in groundwater bodies and the elaboration of associated management plans is lagging, as well as the trend analysis of pollutants, and the definition of a program of measures to achieve their good status, among others. These aspects all together represent important challenges where major efforts need to be focused. Demand management approaches to improve water efficiency are lagging. The fact that Albania is a water rich country, with limited awareness about water scarcity, are important factors explaining the limited effort that went into improving water use efficiency. In the agricultural sector, irrigation efficiency is around 25%, however there is no program in place to address water losses and the rehabilitation of old infrastructure. Albania´s water supply and sanitation sector has significant non-revenue water (NRW), driven by both non- 37 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA authorized abstractions but also physical losses. The reporting on NRW by water service providers is limited and/or not reliable due to also the limited awareness of this topic. There are currently several projects in the pipeline intended to support the metering and digitalization of water services but is uncertain if these will be able to address the big problem of NRW. Within the hydropower sector, there are ongoing discussions to support the diversification of water infrastructure e.g., to move the operation of dams towards multipurpose objectives. Instruments to monitor drinking and ambient water quality need to be strengthened. Albania has put in place several instruments to monitor drinking water and ambient water quality in compliance with some EU Directives (WFD, GWD, and DWD). The drinking water quality regulation in place (DCM no. 379 of 25.05.2016) has been approximated with the DWD (98/83/EC) and is now completed. This regulation is focused on establishing the water quality criteria and methods of analysis for safe drinking water, the required monitoring program, and the hydro-sanitary requirements for water supply infrastructure. Aspect related to the ambient water quality are regulated in the “Law on Integrated Management of Water Resources� (Law Nr. 111/2012) following the requirements of the WFD. While Albania is compliant in the development and implementation of the ambient and drinking water measures, including the monitoring of the status of water bodies and drinking standards, some important gaps remain. Other than the limited monitoring for groundwater bodies, many water users are not connected to the communal drinking system, which makes difficult monitoring safety quality for drinking purposes. Likewise, the definition of safe drinking protection zones is not fully developed, which poses a health risk in many areas. 1.7.2 Management of Water Risks The results of the indicator assessments for water risks are provided in 11b. Flood Risk Albania has a relatively high flood risk both in terms of population affected and damage as percentage of GDP. According to AQUEDUCT (2022), annually an average of 2.4% of population in Albania are affected by floods, while sustaining 3.0% of GDP in damages. It should be noted here that AQUEDUCT is a global flood risk product, and while being a strong indicator of the existence of flood risk, the results provided might differ when benchmarking against ECA average and/or when using specific studies local (e.g., protection levels varying with the quality of flood defences), since these are likely to produce different and/or more accurate results. In addition, the lowlands and river mouths have a more limited risk of sea water intrusion through storm surges. Climate change is expected to worsen these issues further, due to a combination of more irregular rainfall patterns and rising sea levels. During the last 33 years, the damage caused by floods is approximately 2.3 billion USD (Namara et al. 2022), largely due to large rainfall events, followed by the release of excess water from reservoirs. Albania has a total of 652 dams for various purposes, including irrigation and hydropower generation. Unfortunately, capacity is decreasing due to sedimentation. Yet almost all electricity generated in Albania is from hydropower. The reservoirs generally fill up during the winter when precipitation is higher and are drained during the summer when water is used for irrigation and hydropower generation. In general, reservoir management does consider flood risk in its daily operations, but there is also pressure to fill up the reservoirs for water use in the summer months, reducing available storage for flood mitigation. Consequently, Albania is mostly at risk during the winter months. Flood risk has worsened in recent decades, most likely due to deforestation, overgrazing, and a lack of maintenance of the drainage system and pumping stations (MARD 2019). Furthermore, there are a large number of unpermitted cases of illegal structures which interfere with flood protection infrastructure (MARD 2019). The government is generally aware of the importance of flood protection and is committed to building and repairing flood protection structures (MARD 2019). However, repair and construction require very large 38 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA investments, which are not available at this moment, due to an inadequate budget allocation (MARD 2019). However, a relatively small percentage of Albania’s current budget is currently allocated, and funding needs to be increased. AMBU is responsible for flood risk management, while the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is responsible for irrigation and drainage. In some cases, this leads to unclear responsibilities between the two authorities. Albania is working on flood risk management plans in seven RBDs; Drin-Buna, Mati, Ishëm, Erzeni, Shkumbini, Semani, and VJosa. In each RBD a preliminary flood risk assessment was performed, and work is currently ongoing to create flood hazard maps, flood risk maps, and finally flood risk management plans (see Table 4). Various parts of the reports are supported by the GIZ, WBIF, and PRONEWS. As an example, 46 Areas of Potential Significant Flood Risk were identified in the Drin River basin (including upstream countries) 6. Table 4: Current status of the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment, flood hazard maps, flood risk maps and Flood Risk Management Plans (Source: Assessment Sheets and interviews) Preliminary River Basin Flood Risk Flood Hazard Maps Flood Risk Maps Flood Risk Management Plans Assessment Drin-Buna Completed Completed 3 out of 8 Completed 3 out of 8 Completed 3 out of 8 zones zones zones supported by GIZ supported by GIZ supported by GIZ Mati Completed Prepared by WBIF for Prepared by WBIF for - the main segment 25 the main segment 25 Km (1/2 of the zone) Km (1/2 of the zone) Ishëm Completed Completed 2 out of 3 - - zones (Supported by PRONEWS, EU Funding) Erzeni Completed Completed 2 out of 6 - - zones (Supported by PRONEWS, EU Funding) Shkumbini Completed Completed 5 out of 8 - - zones (Supported by PRONEWS, EU Funding) Semani Completed Completed 4 out of 11 - - zones (Supported by PRONEWS, EU Funding) Vjosa Completed Completed 1 out of 8 - - zones (Supported by PRONEWS, EU Funding) An early warning system is implemented partially for the Drin-Buna river basin. This was funded by the GIZ under the umbrella of the “Adaptation to Climate Change through Transboundary Flood Risk Management in 6 https://www.giz.de/en/downloads/GIZ2018_Flooding_Maps.pdf 39 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA the Western Balkans�, aiming to expand the collaboration between the four partner countries; Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia. This project established a Technical Working Group to enhance cooperation. No national financial plans are in place to deal with flood emergencies, meaning no planned government funds or insurance is available for those affected by floods. There are no systems to effectively manage information related to flood risk between different authorities. At this point, there are no official plans to regularly update flood risk management plans in the future. Several projects are ongoing which aim to substantially improve flood risk management in Albania. The EU funded project PRO NEWS, which started in January 2017, is in place to assess the institutional and legal framework of flood risk management in Albania, to support the development of flood hazard maps through training and technical assistance, to develop a national flood forecasting and warning system, and finally to design a public awareness campaign. The program is currently in the implementation phase. Furthermore, there is currently ongoing work in the projects PRO NEWS and the GIZ-funded project “Adaptation to Climate Change through Transboundary Flood Risk Management in the Western Balkans� to expand the capacity for early warning systems. The latter project especially focusses on expanding the transboundary context, enhancing international cooperation. Figure 13: Riverine flood risk as percentage of GDP in Albania. (Source: Hofste et al. 2019) Drought Risk Despite Albania having a relatively large drought risk, no drought risk management plans have been developed, and the country is lacking a clear approach for drought management. AMBU is responsible for drought risk management in Albania. This drought risk is especially worrisome due to the large dependency on the reservoir network for irrigation and electricity generation. This happened, for example, during the drought between 2003 and 2007. Drought risk estimated by AQUEDUCT (see Figure 14) is a combination of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, and rated on a scale ranging from low (1) to high risk 40 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA (5). The drought hazard is based on an analysis of historic precipitation deficits. Drought exposure is based on a combination of population and livestock density and crop cover. Drought vulnerability is based on a composite of social, economic and infrastructure indicators. For a full methodological description see Carrão et al. (2016). Based on this indicator, Albania is ranked in the top quartile of countries globally in terms of drought impacts (AQUEDUCT 2022). Figure 14: Drought risk in Albania (Source: Hofste et al. 2019) 1.7.3 Service delivery The results of the indicator assessments for water risks are provided in Figure 11c. Quality and efficiency of the service The Key Performance Indicators for the year 2021 that WRA uses to estimate the performance of the utilities are summarized in Table 5 below. 41 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Table 5: Key Performance Indicators used by WRA (Source: WRA 2021) Non-revenue water is a major issue and needs to be addressed to improve the efficiency and financial sustainability of the system. NRW is estimated to be 64.8% across Albania, five utilities performed below the 30% of good performance, 18 of them performed within the 30-50% and other 35 performed above the 50% of benchmarking. With regards to the water balance, the NRW level can only be estimated. Data reported for sales is more accurate (50% technical losses, 50% administrative losses (countrywide). For Tirana, 80% technical losses and 20% administrative losses. There is no data reported or estimated for volume of NRW per km of water distribution network per day. WRA (2021) estimates NRW at 64.8% although the slight improvement compared to 2020, still remains a serious problem for the WSS sector, including the significant problem of inaccuracy in measuring the amount of water produced. In the framework of the new reform of the WSS sector, special attention should be paid to the installation of water meters at the source and at household and private consumers in order to draft accurate water balance as a base for action plans to reduce losses. The metering ratio improved from 79.6% in 2021 to 80.7% in 2022 (WRA 2021). There are some Operation & Maintenance policies and procedures developed for big water utilities. But they are no proper Operation & Maintenance (O&M) System and/or Manuals or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). O&M in this category of water utilities are based on these policies and carried out according to personal experience and knowledge of operators. Although the total O&M cost coverage for the Albanian water sector is reported with 103.4%, the total cost coverage for the WSS sector is 73.9% only (WRA 2021). In most of the Water Utilities in Albania there are no schedules for planned preventative maintenance procedures. Maintenance is limited to repairs in case of problems or failure. The total number of breaks reported per km of water distribution network (excluding breaks detected through active leakage control) is 3.71. This number is in decline when compared to the reported breaks in 2013. Which were 4.27 breaks/km/year (WAREG 2015). For the Administrative Units within the service area of the water utilities, O&M mostly is carried out according to the experience of the operational staff appointed to this area with 42 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA minor support from the regional operator. Also, for the year 2021, the energy cost with about 29% of the O&M costs, remains the second item after labor costs with the largest weight in the O&M costs of WSS utilities. Accuracy of data and reports is still an issue within the WSS sector in Albania. The problems with the lack of accuracy and reliability of the data reported for many WSS utilities, requires the increase of the responsibility of the management staff of the WSS utilities in compliance with the procedures for the accuracy of the data defined in the new methodology for setting tariffs. Only 24 of 66 urban areas have 24h water supply. Water supply coverage in rural areas is much lower than in urban areas. The water quality is heavily impacted due to intermitted water supply (15.4% hours per day). Tap water in areas with intermitted supply is therefore not considered as safely managed drinking water, and the consumers rely on bottled water instead. Drinking water quality monitoring is conducted on a regular basis. In Albania, drinking water quality monitoring is based on the DCM no. 379 of 25.05.2016 on approval of "Drinking Water Quality" Regulation. It regulates sampling frequencies for monitoring water quality within the service area of the water utilities. The ratio of high operational costs (incl. high total personnel costs) vs. low tariffs is still an issue and represents a challenge for utilities to fulfill their monitoring requirements in a cost-effective way Financial sustainability The lack of appropriate infrastructure is a major concern in Albania. 90% of state budget for water and sanitation goes to water supply. The sanitation sector therefore is underfinanced. The high operational costs vs. low tariffs and 70% of utilities cannot cover operational costs. The central government through AKUM has distributed 380 million ALL subsidies entirely dedicated to cover the energy costs. 60% of the total subsidies are respectively benefited by: WS Durrës 98.2 million ALL, WS Vlora 52.5 million ALL, WS Patos 32.7 million, and WS Elbasan 30.3 million ALL. Investments in the sewerage system still remain a challenge in the future as the coverage of the sector with sewers at the national level for 2021 remains very low at 52% (WRA 2021). There is a lack of meters, lack of use of meters, and a low accuracy of meters. The annual water service operational expenses (excluding depreciation, interest and debt service) expressed by annual volume of water sold is 0.61 €/m3 sold/year. The staff efficiency is presented at high levels, at 5.37 employees per 1000 WSS connections, where for the year 2021 the sector had an increase in labor cost by 5% reaching in total 33% of the utility's operational costs. WSS companies must be based on a detailed analysis of organizational charts and job positions, to justify the number of employees. In particular, WRA will address this issue when utilities apply for new services tariffs (WRA 2021). Larger WS utilities are able to provide more maintenance funding. Whereas medium-small utilities are underestimating the maintenance costs, and consequently lack the access to funding for repair and replacements of assets. According to WRA only 12 out of 57 WSS utilities operating in the sector manage to cover 100% O&M costs. WSS Tirana, Korçë, Berat - Kuçovë cover above 100% of O&M costs. For 2021, there are 12 utilities out of 57 utilities operating throughout the country, which cover over 100% O&M costs (WRA 2021). The increase of incomes from the activity is due to the increase of the volume of water billed for 2021 compared to 2020 by 4.3 million m3 of water, as a result of an increase of 19 000 new water connections and an increase in continuity of water supply hours. In contrast, Operation & Maintenance costs have increased by about 118 million ALL, which comes mainly from the increase in labor and energy costs. The CAPEX financial planning is mainly done through the process of Business Planning, where utilities are able to define their needs and develop the financial plan either to be funded by their own sources (tariffs) or through a national/domestic financing (taxes) or foreign financing (transfers). Again, this is more evident in big or well performing utilities such as Tirana, Korca, Lezhe. The financial performance of the sector for 2020 and 2021 is given in the table below. 43 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Table 6: Financial Performance of WSS sector in 2020 and 2021 (Source: WRA 2021) The positive value for the entire sector comes mainly from the positive financial balance of WS Tirana related to O&M costs coverage. The total amount of 946 million ALL (about 7.8 million euros) of the physical investments from the state budget implemented in the water sector during 2021 was lower compared to the previous years. Through them was achieved the improvement of the quality of services for consumers with a 24/7 regime for 5 urban centers, respectively Rrëshen, Ersekë, Berat, Kuçovë and Memaliaj, bringing till the end of 2021 the total number of urban centers with a 24/7 regime to 27 (WRA 2021). The foreign financing, transfer through loans and grants, was about 2.6 billion ALL or about EUR 21 million, mainly from the EU and KfW. However, compared to previous years, these investments were of lower value. The physical investments from donors have mainly consisted in financing the Municipal Infrastructure Program III, IV and V (about 90% of the total) which covers 8 cities of Albania, as Shkodër, Lezhë, Kamëz, Elbasan, Berat, Kuçovë, Vlorë and Fier. While the rest of the funding was invested in other projects on a smaller scale, such as for the rehabilitation of Tirana water network (WRA 2021). Albania is currently implementing a regionalization process. DoCM has decided to merge 57 water utilities into 15 central water suppliers. The Ministry will be the main shareholder of each of the 15 companies to improve the quality of management. During 2021 the WSS sector has performed its activity with a total staff of 8,616 employees (its own employees plus third parties sub-contracted) from 8,425 employees that were reported in 2020 with an increase by 191 employees. The increase in their number is due to the additional specifics of operation and service delivery, expansion of service areas, implementation of various Utility projects or even due to guaranteeing the safety of works with guardianship. The utilities that have significantly increased the number of employees are WSS Tirana with 69 employees, due to the restructuring of the utility, WSS Elbasan with 93 employees, of which 50 of them in the position of Task Force and Lawyers and other 43 employees subcontracted for the guard service and WSS Kamëz with 51 employees due to the expansion of the service area with 5000 new connections. On the other hand, there are many utilities that have reduced their operating staff, among them are WSS Fier and WSS Vlora which have reviewed the structure of employees and have reduced staff respectively by 73 employees and 34 employees. Due to the fluctuation of energy generated by hydropower, and due to the high energy prices overall, AKUM has their focus on implementing water supply schemes powered by gravity flow. In addition, they are concentrating on the use of photovoltaic as an alternative to hydropower and the 44 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA reduction of energy production costs in general. For example, in UK Korce, photovoltaic covers 30% of the total energy costs and 100% of the energy for the WWTP. AKUM also plans to replace old pumps with new ones with improved energy performance. In 2021, energy costs have increased by 8% due to the increase in consumption with the amount of 12.2 million kw compared to 2020. Energy costs for 2021 are reported to be about 207.5 million ALL higher than 2020. The main impact on the increase in energy costs was given by WAA Durrës, which increased energy costs by 191 million ALL for the reasons mentioned above. In addition, WSS Fier (30 million ALL) and WSS Sarandë (19.4 million ALL) have also had an increase in energy costs. The volume of water produced by pumping in the sector has increased by 1.5 million m3 (WRA 2021). In 2021, WRA carried out the study "Issues of Covering Energy Costs by WSS Utilities". The purpose of the study is the analysis of the indebtedness of WSS utilities for the payment of energy to OSHEE, the factors that have influenced the accumulation of this debt, as well as the recommendations for increasing the financial ability of WSS utilities to pay the energy bill, as well as the arrears to OSHEE. The study concluded that the approach to solving this problem lies in increasing the efficiency of the energy used, improving the KPIs of utilities, applying a new tariff plan for WSS services, as well as continuing partially/fully subsidizing the utilities from the state budget (WRA 2021). Strategic planning and performance monitoring Level of water and sanitation strategic planning and strategic investment planning has improved. As mentioned above, water sector improvement is one of the five priorities of the Government of Albania. For more than ten years Albania has established a benchmarking and monitoring system where all water utilities report data on regular basis. Indicators are defined in National Water Sector Strategy and both MIE/ERRU are responsible institutions to track progress. Data accuracy remains a big challenge. 90% of state budget for water and sanitation goes to water supply. The sanitation sector is therefore chronically underfinanced. The 5-year Business Plans serve as an instrument for improving the management of WS utilities by the actions planned in order to improve the Key Performance Indicators. Currently in the sector, mainly large and medium-size WS utilities have 5-year business plans. The new tariff methodology approved by WRA in December 2021, has set up as a condition the 5-year business plan document for utilities that apply for tariffs with the target to cover up to 100% the Capital Costs of the activity. The lack of 5-year business plans is evident mainly for small utilities, which do not have the necessary capacities and financial means to draft and implement them. Maturity of water and sanitation performance monitoring framework: Sector indicators exist, but there is still some room for improvement. National targets are formulated using these indicators. Key performance indicators monitored/assessed by WRA are: 1. Non-Revenue Water 2. O&M Cost Coverage 3. Total Cost Coverage 4. General Collection Rate 5. Current Collection Rate 6. Metering Ratio 7. Staff Efficiency 8. Continuity of Water Supply 9. Wastewater Sewerage Coverage 10. Water Supply Coverage An annual report is produced by the national regulator WRA (ERRU), but a joint review process is lacking. There is a need to coordinate and reach an agreement between AKUM and WRA (ERRU) on data variables to be requested from utilities for performance monitoring/benchmarking and for tariff setting, so that the same data can be utilized by various institutional users for their legal competences (i.e., by AKUM for subsidy and CAPEX allocations, and by ERRU for tariff setting purposes). For over 10 years, Albania has used a 45 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA benchmarking and monitoring system where all water utilities report data on regular basis. Indicators are defined in National Water Sector Strategy and both MIE/ERRU are responsible institutions to track progress. Data accuracy remains a big challenge. Targets are defined in National Water Sector Strategy and action plans. ERRU monitors performance progress based on targets on annual basis. Water utilities are asked to develop and implement 5 years Business Plans based on measurable goals. Both AKUM and ERRU receive regular periodic reporting from water utilities. ERRU’s annual report is based on reported data from each water company. Data is forwarded to the European Association of Water and Wastewater Regulators (WAREG). Quality of Asset Management At the end of 2021, WRA approved the new methodology for setting tariffs for WSS services. The new methodology responds better to the current and future requirements of the sector. There are foreseen improvements in terms of the analysis process and the incentive for the drawing up of the asset management plan (WRA, 2021). Basic asset management systems exist in all urban areas, whereas deficits only prevail in rural areas. As mentioned above, maintenance is insufficiently financed. Asset Management has been a key priority for the water reforms but very little is done from the water operators. Proper asset inventory is lacking especially in the rural areas. AM concept is introduced in the GIZ SEEAM project where utilities participated in different phases but very little was completed. Asset inventory is more complete for the urbanized areas. Yet, no proper asset management is done even for the urban areas. The water companies lack the resources and the proper documentation of assets in their systems. Irrigation Irrigation systems in Albania are costly, under-maintained, and outdated. Water users pay only a small portion of the operation and maintenance costs. 30% of irrigation and 57% of drainage networks require rehabilitation. The irrigation system relies almost completely on open canals, which are divided into primary canals, maintained by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and secondary canals, which are owned by 61 municipalities. Although several Water Users Organizations (WUO) have been established to operate the secondary irrigation infrastructure, the process has not yet been completed, and the municipalities in charge of maintaining and operating the systems still experience many problems. Investments and operation and maintenance costs for the primary canals are borne by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the secondary canals, it is jointly funded by water users (e.g., farmers) and by the municipalities, often relying on national government funds. Currently, farmers cover approximately 30 –40% of the operation and maintenance costs and do not pay for the resource use. 46 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA 1.8 Outcomes Figure 15 provides an overview of assessment of the outcomes dimension of the water sector in Albania. Figure 15: Assessment of indicators regarding the outcomes of water sector in Albania across three sub-dimensions, a) Social outcomes, b) Environmental outcomes7, and c) Economic outcomes 1.8.1 Social outcomes The results of the indicator assessments for social outcomes are provided in Figure 15a. Supply of drinking water and sanitation services As of 2021, 95.1% of the population had access to basic and safely managed drinking water sources. This is a slightly higher-than-average value in the ECA region, but there is room for improvement – especially in rural areas. According to WHO data, the supply gap between urban and rural areas with regard to drinking water is very small – this, however, applies to “basic and safely managed drinking water� , a definition from the SDG reporting. “Safely managed drinking water� is only available to 70% of the total population, data on urban/rural percentages is not available from the SDG monitoring. Albanian Key Performance Indicators from AKUM put water supply coverage at 78%. Piped drinking water is available to 7 Data on ambient water quality is largely missing in Albania; see text below. 47 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA only 76% of the total population (WRA 2021). In 2015, the supply gap was more than 90% in urban areas to 59% in rural areas (World Bank 2015). 99.3% of the population has access to basic and safely managed sanitation services. According to WHO data, there is no supply gap between urban and rural areas - this, however, applies again to “basic and safely managed sanitation� (SDG reporting). The part which is “safely managed� is only about 47% on the national scale, which is one of the lowest numbers in the ECA region (where the average is about 70%). Rural water and sanitation access levels for piped water and flush toilets are higher than the ECA regional averages – in Albania, rural areas have even a higher percentage of “safely managed sanitation services� than urban areas (53% to 44%). Inequalities in access between urban and rural areas for piped water in the home are 13 percent, and 12 percent respectively (World Bank 2018). Albanian Key Performance Indicators from AKUM put water supply coverage at 78%, sewage coverage at 54% (83% in urban areas, 13.7% in rural areas) and total coverage with wastewater treatment at 14.5%, which is a very low number. Minority populations have very limited access to water and sanitation facilities. Marginalised Roma face limited access to opportunities in virtually every aspect of human development, such as basic rights, health, education, housing, employment and standard of living. According to UNDP (2018) and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MHSP 2019), only 48% of the Roma population have access to piped water inside the dwelling, and only 50% have access to a toilet inside the dwelling. Many of these families also do not have access to potable water, indoor toilets, or wastewater services infrastructure. Sixty-six percent of the poorest share of the population (living on less than $2.50 PPP/day) has access to a piped water supply and 79% has access to a flush toilet (World Bank 2015). Water supply and sewerage services in Albania are affordable for a high percentage of the population. The water bill for an average family represents 1,5% of the household income and more than 2.2% for the bottom 40% population. It remains below the 5% threshold, which is a milestone monitored by the Water Regulatory Authority (World Bank 2015, World Bank 2019). Health and safety Albania has deficits in terms of health consequences of insufficient water supply and sanitation services. The relatively low levels of wastewater treatment are reflected in health consequences for the general population, and the health indicators related to WASH are only on a medium level in Albania. The number of annual DALYs (“disability adjusted life years�) due to unsafe water, sanitation and handwashing are with a value of 132 per 100 000 inhabitants at the average of the ECA region. The mortality rate attributable to unsafe WASH services stands at 0,17 per 100 000 inhabitants and is slightly below the ECA regional average. Infant mortality (8 per 1,000 live births and stunting (10%) due to a lack of safely managed sanitation are also very high (World Bank 2022, indicators on stunting and infant mortality). Floods impact a significant share of the Albanian population and have significant economic impacts. Intense rainfall events caused by strong storms along with poor land use practices and increasing deforestation, can lead to significant and damaging floods across the country (as demonstrated in autumn 2022). According to the EM-DAT database, the share of the population affected by flooding between 1980 and 2021 is comparably big and in the upper range of the values in the ECA region. During the period 1990 to 2014, floods caused significant economic losses. During the last 33 years the economic loss caused by floods is estimated at $2.3 billion. These floods were caused by a combination of high rainfall levels and release of excess water from the hydropower stations; they affected large surfaces of arable land, livestock, and houses (Namara et al. 2022). 1.8.2 Environmental outcomes The results of the indicator assessments for environmental outcomes are provided in Figure 15(b). 48 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Water quality and ecological status Albania has problems with water quality, but effective action is hindered by a lack of information. In terms of water quality, the organic and nutrient compounds for all lakes were at satisfactory levels in the period 2004-2011. Currently, however, the water quality status is not clear since many physical- chemical parameters are not monitored regularly. This can also be seen in the first WFD-compliant RBMPs of Mat, Ishëm and Erzen. Water quality assessments undertaken in 2016 using classification systems based on biological, hydro-morphological, chemical and physical-chemical parameters (according to the EU-WFD characterization), show pollutant and hydro-morphological impacts on aquatic ecosystems (MARD 2016). Information on status of Albanian surface water bodies is lacking. For most RBD in Albania, WFD- compliant RBMPs are under preparation; the currently finalized ones (Mat, Ishëm and Erzen) provide a first estimation of the status of surface water bodies, yet this is often based on expert judgement due to the lack of monitoring information. This relative lack of information on biological, ecological and chemical quality elements in surface water bodies is also emphasized by the lack of information in Albania regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Indicator 6.3.2 on “ambient water quality�. Low levels of safely treated wastewater put stress on aquatic ecosystems. The operation of wastewater treatment facilities has improved over the last decade, but performance in not yet adequate – only 13% of all wastewater is safely treated in Albania. The lack of primary wastewater treatment at source also means that industries can inadvertently discharge wastewater upstream of potable water sources used for downstream populations. Although most industries and mines have shut down, historically contaminated sites still pose a significant environmental and contamination risk due to lack of attention and regulations for environmental protection. Also, groundwater sources are intensively abstracted for domestic and industrial water use and because these aquifers are located near urban areas, they are vulnerable to anthropogenic contamination. Due to the fact that nutrients and organic pollutants from surrounding land infiltrate water in all Rivers Basins, lakes and wetlands will continuously degrade and enhance the vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems (MARD 2016). Albania has lost and still loses important wetland ecosystems. From the 1950’s onwards, many Albanian wetlands were drained and reclaimed for agricultural land. As a result, valuable wetlands have disappeared although large lagoons remain including Karavasta, Narta and Butrint. These natural aquatic ecosystems, important for their high biodiversity values, are currently being threatened by land-based pollution – the rate of wetland loss is still medium high, indicating that wetlands are still being lost to development. Water stress Albania´s water resources are sufficient, but it should safeguard its resources against future stressors. Albania has almost no water stress across the country (Figure 16), with a very low water stress ratio – one of the lowest in the ECA region. Water stress ratio is the ratio between total freshwater withdrawn by major economic sectors and total renewable freshwater resources, after considering environmental water requirements. Also, groundwater tables are not in a state of decline, or declining very slowly. This situation is beneficial to environmental outcomes, and also crucial for Albania´s growing tourism sector, both in terms of maintaining or improving environmental quality, and satisfying future increased water demands. 49 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 16: Water stress in Albania at county level 1.8.3 Economic outcomes The results of the indicator assessments for economic outcomes are provided in Figure 15(c). Albania has transformed from one of the poorest countries in Europe to an upper-middle-income country. The agricultural share of GDP is at the same level as the industrial share, with the services sector contributing the biggest share to GDP. Water withdrawals are highest for the agricultural sector (61% of total water withdrawals), with lower withdrawals from the industrial (17.7% of total water withdrawals) and municipal (21% of total water withdrawals) sectors (FAO 2022). Water resources are crucial for the development of Albania’s economy, in particular the sectors of energy generation, tourism and agriculture. As a percentage of total renewable resources, Albania´s water withdrawals are very low (5-6% of total renewable resources). However, water is crucial for critical sectors such as energy production (hydropower), and future growth, e.g., in tourism. Economic water productivity is low, Albania being at the lower end across the ECA region. “Economic water productivity� measures the efficiency with which water is used in the economy at national level, and is shown in USD per m³ of water extracted. The overall water use efficiency is only USD12/m³ (2020 value) (Figures 17 and 18). 50 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 17: Economic water productivity (USD/m3) per county in Albania8 Agriculture Though low, Albanian agricultural water productivity is still higher than the ECA regional average. While agricultural water productivity is low (1,7 USD/m³), it is necessary to recognize that this is the case across the whole ECA region – agricultural water productivity is generally lower than in the industry and services sectors. 8 This figure shows the water productivity at subnational level, by combining spatially explicit water demand and GDP data (in contrast to the SDG indicator on water productivity above). 51 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 18: Agricultural water productivity (USD/m3) per county in Albania Irrigated agriculture is critical for inclusive development of the rural economy of Albania. The biggest share of cultivated land in the country is irrigated (32% - but 57% is equipped for irrigation), contributing almost 50% of total agricultural GDP. Agriculture employs about 40 percent of the total workforce, with women assuming a substantial role in the agricultural sector due to demographic changes in rural areas. However, due to the poor quality of service delivery and land fragmentation, utilization of the equipped irrigation areas is suboptimal. The imperfections of agricultural land markets, and extreme land fragmentation is disincentivizing farmers from making long-term investments (Namara et al. 2022). Agriculture in Albania is vulnerable to various hazards including floods, droughts, and seawater intrusion. It is expected that these hazards will be exacerbated due to climate change, highlighting the need to address infrastructure rehabilitation and modernization needs (Namara et al. 2022). Energy Albania is 97 per cent hydropower-dependent for electricity. Correspondingly, hydropower has a high share of the country´s total primary energy supply. However, its annual electricity generation from hydropower has fluctuated massively in recent years, leading to high imports in all but the very wettest years. For example, Albania declared an energy emergency in October 2021 and in March 2022 halted generation at 11 out of 13 of state-owned company hydropower plants due to drought (Gallop/Ralev 2022). Albania is the only country in the Western Balkans where several large new hydropower plants have been built in the last two decades. Albania has added more than 600 MW of large hydropower since 2010, and since then only Slovenia has also managed to build several plants in the wider Balkan region. For several years, Albania´s renewables incentives scheme only supported hydropower, not solar or wind, and as of July 2022 only relatively small projects have been built, with a 140 MW solar plant now reportedly starting construction. After the energy emergencies, Albania appears to have realized the risks of being so dependent on hydropower. Yet even now it is still planning to build new hydropower plants (European Commission 2018, Gallop/Ralev 2022). 52 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Tourism Tourism is a sector for the Albanian economy with huge potential, where economic growth could be generated. Tourism generates around 50% of the expert value of the country (World Bank 2022), and although generally not considered the most significant consumer of water, relies on high quality environmental outcomes for coastal and freshwater as well as high quality services of water supply and sanitation. The Albanian Tourism Strategy therefore indicates its intention to have a positive and budget neutral effect on quality of Albania’s water resources because of the dependence of tourism on healthy ecosystems and landscape (MARD 2016). Water-related risks and economic costs Albania´s water security is threatened by the economic cost of floods and droughts. Intense rainfall events caused by strong storms along with poor land use practices and increasing deforestation, can lead to significant and damaging floods across the country. Heavy seasonal rains and the resultant floods have been affecting the country for the past three decades. According to AQUEDUCT (2022), annually an average of 2.4% of population in Albania are affected by floods, while sustaining 3.0% of GDP in damages. The EMDAT database lists 9 major floods and 2 storms between 1980 and 2010 (the time for which data was available), affecting more than 600 thousand people and causing economic damages of more than USD$24 million. In 2022, the country was affected strongly by both floodings and drought spells. 53 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Future Trajectories This section provides future quantitative projections for select indicators of the WSDF in Albania, using a range of future climate and socio-economic scenarios highlighting changes in water availability and demand due to increasing/decreasing population and economic changes, e.g., in the agricultural sector. These projections were presented to key water sector stakeholders at a workshop in Tirana, Albania, followed by an exercise to identify internal drivers affecting water security. Projections are presented and discussed for Albania as a whole and at the entity level. The following indicators with future projections are discussed in this section: • Renewable water availability • Total water demand • Water stress, and • Flood and drought risk 1.9 Future climate and socioeconomic scenarios The analysis of future trajectories aims to explore a range of possible futures to identify a set of opportunities and risks for Albania’s future situation. They are intended to reflect a wide enough range of reasonable futures to encourage thinking of actions responding to a range of possibilities. They are suggestions of what the future may look like but are not to be interpreted as what future will exactly look like. The quantitative projections of indicators are provided for a range of scenarios combining future climate and socio-economic changes. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations organization tasked with advancing knowledge on climate change, uses a collection of climate and socio-economic projections for modelling and research. The climate/emission scenarios, called the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), are four projections of greenhouse gas concentrations (Table 7). For example, RCP26 shows greenhouse gas concentrations increasing slightly until 2040 and then reducing to around 2000 levels by 2100. RCP85 shows rising emissions – the higher the RCP, the more greenhouse gas emissions. Several different climate models can represent each RCP. Here we use five different climate models for each RCP, namely, five example versions of the climate assuming the RCP. These five models are GFDL-ESM4, IPSL-CM6A-LR, MPI-ESM1-2- HR, MRI-ESM2-0, and UKESM1-0-LL9. Climate scenarios elaborated for Albania are discussed further in section 3.2 of UNFCCC (2012)10. Table 7. Albania climate projections. Note: The table shows CMIP5 ensemble projection under RCP8.5. The bold value is the range (10th–90th Percentile), and values in parentheses indicate the median (or 50th Percentile). Source: World Bank (2022b) CMIP5 Ensemble 2020–2039 2040–2059 2060–2079 2080–2099 Projection Annual Temperature +0.4 to +2.3 +1.1 to +3.6 +1.8 to +3.6 +2.7 to +6.9 Anomaly (°C) (+1.3) (+2.2) (+3.3) (+4.4) Annual Precipitation -18 to +10.5 -23 to +10 -27.5 to +8.6 -33.2 to +5.8 Anomaly (mm) (−2.8) (−4.3) (−8.5) (−12.2) 9 The results of the climate models are taken from the ISIMIP project: https://www.isimip.org/ 10 https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/2022-08/Albania%20Revised%20NDC.pdf. 54 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA The socioeconomic scenarios, called the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), are five narratives of development, cooperation, and priorities. For example, SSP1 is called the Sustainability Path and imagines a world acknowledging environmental boundaries, increasing equality and education, economic growth motivated by human well-being, and decreasing the use of resources and energy. SSP5 is called Fossil-Fueled Development. Each of the SSPs is associated with quantitative projections of population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Jones et al. 2016), which drive the changes in water demand. Figure 19 shows the change of population and GDP per capita for Albania under three SSPs (SSP1, SSP3, and SSP5). The current population of about 2.81 million people is projected to increase or decrease slightly to 2.5-3.1 million in the coming decades, and the current GDP per capita of 10 000 USD/year is projected to increase to ~14,000- 28,000 USD/year by 2050. The GDP per capita is expected to continue increasing after 2050. Population and GDP per capita projections are translated into water demands following the methodology of Wada et al. (2011). Figure 19: Population and GDP per capita projections for Albania under three SSPs 1.10 Projections of select water security indicators 1.10.1 National projections on water availability, water demand and water stress In this report, we provide future projections up to 2050 for some water security indicators, such as water availability and demand, under three climate and socio-economic scenario combinations to provide a range of possibilities. We refer to these combinations as Optimistic (combining SSP1 with RCP26), Middle (combining SSP3 with RCP7011), and Pessimistic (combining SSP5 with RCP85). The projections provided here are results of simulations conducted with the global hydrological models CWatM (Burek et al. 2020). The following figures show for each scenario the median and range of results from the five climate models mentioned in Section 3.1. Figure 20 shows annual and monthly water availability in the historical period (1970-2020) and the future (2020-2050). Annual water availability up to 2050 may experience a slight decrease compared with 1901- 2019 and an increased occurrence of extreme years -- median values are between 8 and 11% less and lowest extremes are between 11 and 29% lower. There is a slight decreasing trend with an increased occurrence of extreme years (Figure 20a; Table 7). Water availability throughout the year up to 2050 shows similar monthly average medians to history. All months show occurrences of wetter conditions than in recent history, as well as an increase in the occurrence of extreme events. Some months show an increased occurrence of drier conditions than in recent history (Figure 20b). 11 Indicators related to flood risk use SSP2 with RCP45 for the Middle scenario. 55 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 20: a) Annual water availability in Albania for historical and three future scenarios12 b) Monthly water availability for historical and three future scenarios 12 Line graphs show the median of the five models for each scenario, as well as the entire range as a shadow. 56 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Table 7: Water availability annually medians and interquartile range annually historically and for three future scenarios. Changes in projections from historical are shown in parentheses. Historical represents 1901-2019, and the scenarios from 2020-2050 Unit is km3 Historical Optimistic Middle 2020- Pessimistic 1901-2019 2020-2050 2050 2020-2050 Highest extreme 43.6 42.2 (-3%) 40.2 41.7 (-4%) (-8%) Upper quartile 33.4 31.2 (-7%) 30.7 30.9 (-7%) (-8%) Median 30.5 28.0 (-8%) 27.2 28.0 (-8%) (-11%) Lower quartile 26.4 24.5 (-7%) 23.5 24.9 (-6%) (-11%) Lowest extreme 19.2 17.1 (-11%) 13.7 13.3 (-31%) (-29%) Figure 21 provides projections of total water demand by source. These projections show that surface water demands continue to satisfy most of the needs, between 75 and 85%. Surface and groundwater demand increases under the Middle and Pessimistic scenarios and relatively stabilize under the Optimistic scenario. It is important to mention that projections of water demand provided here do not consider potential changes in irrigated areas. Irrigated areas were kept fixed at the 2000 level for future projections. As a result of the projected changes in water availability and demand, Albania is projected to experience slightly increasing water stress (table 8). Projections show examples of significant experiences of water stress, up to 2.5 times more than in extreme years than experienced historically (Figure 22). Table 8: Total water demand and water stress ranges for the pessimistic scenario Indicator 1990-2020 2020-2035 2035-2050 Total water demand 0.60 - 1.00 0.97 - 1.12 1.12 - 1.21 (BMC) [0.84] [1.05, +25%] [1.16, +38%] Water stress (ratio 0 to 0.015 - 0.055 0.025 - 0.055 0.03 - 0.09 1) [0.029] [0.037, +28%] [0.044, +51%] Values in brackets show the median and change from the historical period. 57 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 21: Surface water and groundwater demands in Albania for historical and three future scenarios Figure 22: Annual water stress in Albania for historical and three future scenarios 1.10.2 Flood risk Flood risk due to climate change is expected to increase, related to increasing variability and extremes (Figure 23). For example, an overall increase in precipitation is expected in Coastal Albania during the winter months, which may result in higher flood occurrence. Further, the return period of extreme rain events is expected to decrease, also resulting in higher flood occurrence (UNFCCC, 2021). A more moderate increase in flood risk is expected in the north and southwest of the country. However, future flood risk cannot only be considered through the lens of climate change. Flood risk is also, for a large part, dependent on several factors: • The frequency and severity of the flood hazard. While flood occurrence is likely to increase, the impact from floods depends on the readiness of the flood defence system. • The people/assets exposed in potentially affected areas. Here, the costs and benefits of further construction in at-risk areas must be carefully considered. 58 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA • The vulnerability of the people and assets when a flood occurs. Figure 23: Flood risk in terms of GDP for 2050 based on Pessimistic scenario determined by AQUEDUCT 1.10.3 Drought risk Similar to flood risk, drought risk is a complex combination of drought hazard, vulnerability and exposure, with a large number of feedbacks between the components. Due to these complexities and uncertainties for future vulnerability and exposure, we limit the analysis to changes in drought hazards, particularly monthly precipitation (i.e., meteorological drought). Based on a CMIP5 multi-model precipitation ensemble under RCP8.5 (figure 24), droughts are expected to occur more often. Towards the year 2050, average precipitation is projected to decrease in all months, but especially during summer months when drought risk is already most severe. This is further aggravated by an increasing temperature (see key trends) and heavy rain events (UNFCCC, 2021), resulting in increasing evapotranspiration and thus reducing soil moisture. 59 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Figure 24: CMIP5 ensemble projected change in monthly precipitation (in mm) relative to the 1986–2005 baseline under RCP8.5. (Source: World Bank 2022b) 60 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Country Narrative Endowment Availability and demands Albania is a very water-rich country, and belongs to a group of countries where water is not a limiting factor for development given its high abundance. However, the country is increasingly exposed to the impacts of climate change. Available projections show that overall changes in water availability will not be substantial, but the variability will be higher to the extremes (years and months wetter than usual as well as drier) – important in Albania, where seasonal variability of precipitation varies greatly. Climate change also increases the risk of floods and droughts. Demands are also expected to grow, even without taking the upgrading and expansion of irrigated agriculture into account. The projected result is a slight increase in water stress in the future. Albania is in a strong position to cope with hydrological challenges in the future, as the majority of its water originates on its own territory. Nevertheless, several factors need to be considered in terms of future water availability and demand. First, drought spells threaten hydropower production even today, and with increasing water demand – with or without expanding irrigated agriculture – conflicts could arise with regard to reservoir and streamflow management. Second, there are information gaps regarding quantitative and qualitative/chemical status of groundwater bodies. Higher extraction rates due to increasing demand threatens to negatively impact aquifers. Architecture Regulatory framework and institutions The legal framework embraced integrated water resource management principles and will – with the adoption of the new law this year – be aligned to the EU Directives. The efforts under an inter-ministerial working group led by AMBU will lead to the transposition of the Water Framework Directive (and sister directives) as well as the Flood Directives, Drinking Water and Urban Waste Water Treatment Directives. DSIP (Directive-Specific Implementation Plans) for the implementation of the water-related Directives will have to be developed, evaluated and prioritized based on financial needs for investments and their distribution of the costs over time. DSIP for the DWD and UWWTD have been finalized and are to adopted but DSIP will be required for all the other sister directives. A further area for improvement will be to enhance the generation of relevant data and information (complete and maintain the cadastre of water uses) to allow allocation of water for different uses and monitoring of the collective impact of all uses (see action Improve the monitoring of surface, groundwater and coastal water bodies). The resources and capacity to monitor progress – for instance of the Water Framework Directive – are yet to be secured. The creation of water sector “workforce capacity� was re-emphasised across all dimensions. Building and maintaining capacity (against a high fluctuation rate) and thereby strengthening institutional effectiveness is one of the biggest bottlenecks for sector development identified. This is even more relevant as the sector context is changing e.g., the likelihood of climate change related risks as floods and droughts will increase. A national and continuous sector capacity development system for sector institutions as well as the different administrative levels (from national to local government and municipality level) is therefore needed to respond to changes, embrace new issues such as IWRM, address emerging issues and sector challenges that are being addressed gradually such as flood management and water source protection. Roles and responsibilities are delineated between water institutions in Albania but “sharpen ing� and enhanced coordination is needed. The institutional set-up is clear and covers all relevant functions. AMBU is a relatively young agency that assumes a central role in water management across sectors. A strong Agency for Water Resources Management of Albania is required, to coordinate the implementation of plans which are being developed. At the same time overlaps e.g., when it comes to flood and drought management with the Ministry of Agriculture need to be identified and addressed. Cooperation between different sectors is 61 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA needed more than ever to address the negative impact of droughts on energy production and consequently water supply. Water supply and sanitation service provision is still very decentralized, but a major reform is in place to support the regionalization of water utilities (from 57 to about 15) with the purpose of increasing the efficiency of service delivery and enhancing the financial sustainability. This institutional reform represents an excellent opportunity to upgrade human capacities with water service providers. Still, it will require a set of complementary actions to improve technical capacities, financial and asset management well as the ability to attract funding to implement major rehabilitation and expansion initiatives at utility level. Infrastructure Albania´s water supply coverage by piped improved facilities (80.7%) is very high, but the infrastructure was insufficiently maintained in recent decades. Due to the age and condition of the infrastructure, a 24-hour supply is not guaranteed throughout the country. The continuity of service of piped water supply systems is on average only approx. 15 hours and may be classified as unreliable in many towns. On the other hand, Albania is trying to push for a 24h water supply and increased continuity of services. Two issues, however, pose significant challenges in this regard: non-revenue water, i.e., losses, and metering. Non-revenue water (NRW) is with 67% of water losses very high and needs to be tackled to be able to improve continuity of services significantly. The reasons for this high percentage are twofold. On the one hand there are technical losses due to leakages, on the other hand there is a high number of illegal connections or customers who do not pay sufficiently or not at all for their water consumption. Due to this inefficiency, many systems are not gravity fed and must pump groundwater, it is difficult to ensure a 24h water supply. Non-revenue water can only be estimated because of a second key issue, the lack of sufficient water metering (bulk meters, household meters, etc.). Also, while the percentages for piped improved facilities for drinking water is high, around 20-40 percent of the rural population has no piped access at home, although this number varies depending on data source. Similar to drinking water, the country’s total sanitation coverage by sewer facilities (79.5%) is very high. However, the part which is “safely managed� is only ab out 47.7%, which is one of the lowest numbers in the ECA region (where the average is about 70%). Additionally, a very small proportion of the wastewater collected is actually treated: 13%, also one of the lowest numbers compared to other ECA countries. The lack of primary wastewater treatment at source also means that industries can inadvertently discharge wastewater upstream of potable water sources used for downstream populations. The relatively low levels of wastewater treatment are reflected in health consequences for the general population and water quality status of surface and groundwater bodies. Minority populations have very limited access to water and sanitation facilities. Marginalised Roma face limited access to opportunities in virtually every aspect of human development, such as basic rights, health, education, housing, employment and standard of living. According to UNDP (2018) and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MHSP 2019), only 48% of the Roma population have access to piped water inside the dwelling, and only 50% have access to a toilet inside the dwelling. Many of these families also do not have access to wastewater services infrastructure. Irrigation systems in Albania are costly, under-maintained, and outdated. Although cultivated area under irrigation is 32%, which is higher than ECA average of 20.8%, the share of irrigation and drainage networks that require rehabilitation in Albania is 30% and 57%, respectively. The irrigation system relies almost completely on open canals, which are divided into primary canals, maintained by the Ministry of Agriculture, and secondary canals, which are owned by 61 municipalities. Although several Water Users Organizations have been established to operate the secondary irrigation infrastructure, the process has not yet been completed, and the municipalities in charge of maintaining and operating the systems still experience 62 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA many problems, also financially. Cost recovery in agriculture could be improved, as water users pay only a small portion of the operation and maintenance costs. The opportunities to develop further the irrigation sector and increase overall the productivity of agriculture are very large and could also help retaining population in the rural areas if appropriate and innovative development plans are put in place. However, to keep a significant percentage of workforce in the agricultural sector (40% of workforce as of today), large-scale farming and western-style industrialization should be avoided in favor of small-scale, high-revenue agriculture with low environmental impact (like organic agriculture). Albania has a medium-high storage capacity in dams, yet its actual retention is reduced due to low maintenance. Albania dams’ storage capacity is almost 1,400 m 3 per capita. Reservoir functions in Albania are diverse including hydropower generation, irrigation, fishing, water supply, recreational uses, and flood risk mitigation. However, reservoirs are often low-maintenance, partially clogged by sediment, and suffer from technical problems, which put downstream populations at risk. Hydropower is the main source of electricity generation in Albania, yet it relies on old, low-maintained infrastructure, and is highly affected by droughts. Hydroelectricity accounts for 97% of Albania’s total domestic production. Production capacity varies widely between 2,900 GWh in very dry years to approximately 6,000 GWh in very wet years. Hydropower generation in Albania is spread out across the country, yet it mostly relies on 24 large dams, of which 17 are over the age of 30 years, and some suffer from technical problems putting downstream urban populations at risk. Performance Water resources management Albania is making progress in adopting developing and implementing river basin management instruments in compliance with the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and other key EU water directives. Areas where some progress has been achieved include the adaptation of the legal framework to comply with key directives such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD), Drinking Water Directive (DWD) and the Bathing Directive (BD), among others. Further efforts are required to comply with other key directives such as the Flood Directive (FD), Nitrates Directive (ND), Groundwater Directive (GWD) and the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Also, Albania is in the process of developing the RBMPs following the requirements of the WFD: by end of 2022, the country had five out of seven plans in place. Three of them are aligned with some of the key objectives of the WFD (Mat, Ishëm and Erzen) and will be adopted in 2023. These three plans are expected to be approved and aligned with the planning cycle 2022-2027. Monitoring of ecological/chemical and quantitative status of surface and groundwater bodies is the main hindrance for WFD-compliant RBMPs. Among the RBDs with plans available, important gaps remain in the assessment of environmental status, given that not all parameters are measured, and the periodic monitoring of water bodies is also insufficient. Reference conditions have been established but the actual assessment is still missing. The monitoring infrastructure is insufficient due to limited funding and lack of capacities. This also has implications on the assessment of available resources and economic uses since these are heavily relying on estimates and not actual monitoring. All plans do contain a draft economic analysis of water uses and an estimate of non-cost recovery estimates. All these plans have outlined a general program of measures (PoM), although important details such as costs and implementing institutions information are missing. The Albanian Geological Institute oversees the monitoring of ambient groundwater but is lacking financial and technical means to meet the monitoring requirements. Albania also faces challenges in monitoring water abstractions, since not all service providers report abstractions, there are significant illegal abstractions, and there isn´t a register of water abstractions as such in place. Likewise, in several RBDs the establishment of water protection zones in groundwater bodies and the elaboration of associated management plans is lagging, as well as the trend analysis of pollutants, and the definition of a program of measures to achieve their good status, among others. These aspects all together represent important 63 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA challenges where major efforts need to be focused, as good knowledge of the status of water bodies is crucial in managing future demands in light of climatic changes and greater variability and unpredictability of precipitation and water availability. Service delivery Despite significant effort, there is still a lot of room for improving the performance of Albanian water utilities, both technically as well as financially. Low performance levels result in low levels of service to the population and to businesses, and an inability to extend services to those without them, especially the most vulnerable in the peri-urban and rural areas of the country. Only 24 of 66 urban areas have 24h water supply. Water supply coverage in rural areas is much lower than in urban areas. The water quality is heavily impacted due to intermitted water supply (15.4hours per day). Tap water in areas with intermitted supply is therefore not considered as safely managed drinking water, and the consumers rely on bottled water instead. Other challenges are the high rates of water losses (NRW), which can only be estimated. According to WRA (2021), there was a slight improvement in 2021 compared to 2020, but NRW still remains a serious problem for the WSS sector. Also, accuracy of data and reporting is an issue within the WSS sector in Albania. In the framework of the new reform of the WSS sector, special attention should be paid to the installation of water meters at the source and at household and private consumers in order to draft accurate water balance as a base for action plans to reduce losses. Financial sustainability, cost recovery and investments are the main challenges for improving service delivery and utility performance. Cost recovery levels stand at around 70%, and are also impacted by water losses. Although the total O&M cost coverage for the Albanian water sector is reported with 103.4%, the total cost coverage for the WSS sector is 73.9%, according to WRA. Only 12 out of 57 WSS utilities operating in the sector manage to cover 100% O&M costs. 90% of state budget for water and sanitation goes to water supply. The sanitation sector therefore is underfinanced. Investments in the sewerage system still remain a challenge in the future as the coverage of the sector with sewers at the national level for 2021 remains very low at 52% (WRA 2021). Albania is currently implementing a regionalization process. DoCM has paved the way to a further aggregation of the WSS utilities from 57 water utilities into 15 central water suppliers with the purpose of increasing the efficiency of service delivery and enhancing the financial sustainability. 13 Regional utilities are already established. This institutional reform represents an excellent opportunity to upgrade human capacities with water service providers. Still, it will require a set of complementary actions to improve technical capacities, financial and asset management well as the ability to attract funding to implement major rehabilitation and expansion initiatives at utility level. Hydrological risk management Albania has a relatively high flood risk both in terms of population affected and damage as percentage of GDP. According to AQUEDUCT, annually an average of 2.4% of population in Albania are affected by floods, while sustaining 3.0% of GDP in damages. In addition, the lowlands and river mouths have a more limited risk of sea water intrusion through storm surges. Climate change is expected to worsen these issues further, due to a combination of more irregular rainfall patterns and rising sea levels. During the last 33 years, the damage caused by floods is approximately 2.3 billion USD, largely due to large rainfall events, followed by the release of excess water from reservoirs. Flood risk has worsened in recent decades, most likely due to deforestation, overgrazing, and a lack of maintenance of the drainage system and pumping stations. Furthermore, there are a large number of unpermitted cases of illegal structures which interfere with flood protection infrastructure. The government is generally aware of the importance of flood protection, and is committed to building and repairing flood protection structures. However, repair and construction require very large investments, which are not available at this moment, due to inadequate budget allocations. Also, no national financial plans are in place to deal with flood emergencies, meaning no planned government funds 64 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA or insurance is available for those affected by floods. There are no systems to effectively manage information related to flood risk between different authorities (e.g., between AMBU – generally responsible for flood risk management - and the Ministry of Agriculture, responsible for drainage and irrigation). Despite being a significant risk in Albania, predicted to grow worse in the future, the country is not well prepared for dealing with drought. AMBU is responsible for drought risk management in Albania. Despite Albania having a relatively large drought risk, no drought risk management plans have been developed, and thus Albania is lacking a clear approach for drought management. The drought risk is especially worrisome due to the large dependency on the reservoir network for irrigation and electricity generation. This happened, for example, during the drought between 2003 and 2007. Outcomes Social Albania can improve the access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation services. Safe drinking water supply and safe sanitation services are not available equally to all parts of the Albanian population. There are gaps in service provision especially in rural areas and for minorities. 24/7 continuity of service provision is not guaranteed. Connections to wastewater treatment plants, and the level of wastewater actually treated are very low, compared to the ECA average. This causes health problems through fecal and chemical pollution, and environmental damages. On the plus side, water supply and sewerage services in Albania are affordable for a high percentage of the population. The water bill for an average family represents 1,5% of the household income and more than 2,2% for the bottom 40% population. It remains below the 5% threshold, which is a milestone monitored by the Water Regulatory Authority. The water services and sanitation sector needs significant investments to overcome these challenges. However, these investments will bear fruit quickly, improve health and aquatic environments and prepare the WSS sector for future challenges, i.e., with regard to economic growth, increased irrigation needs, or tourism expansion. Environment Albania has problems with water quality, but effective action is hindered by a lack of information. The water quality status is not clear since many physical-chemical parameters are not monitored regularly. Albania did not provide information to the SDG monitoring (Indicator 6.3.2 on “ambient water quality�) with regard to water quality. Water quality assessments undertaken in 2016 using classification systems based on biological, hydro-morphological, chemical and physical-chemical parameters (according to the EU-WFD characterization), suggest significant pollutant and hydro-morphological impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Low levels of safely treated wastewater put stress on aquatic ecosystems. The operation of wastewater treatment facilities has improved over the last decade, but performance in not yet adequate – only 13% of all wastewater is “safely treated� in Albania. The lack of primary wastewater treatment at source also means that industries can inadvertently discharge wastewater upstream of potable water sources used for downstream populations. Although most industries and mines have shut down, historically contaminated sites still pose a significant environmental and contamination risk due to lack of attention and regulations for environmental protection. Also, groundwater sources are intensively abstracted for domestic and industrial water use and because these aquifers are located near urban areas, they are vulnerable to anthropogenic contamination. Due to the fact that nutrients and organic pollutants from surrounding land infiltrate water in all Rivers Basins, lakes and wetlands will continuously degrade and enhance the vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems. Additional efforts are needed to improve water quality and ecological status of water bodies, which represent important assets for economic activities such as tourism. 65 Deep Dive Country Assessment-ALBANIA Economic Albania has transformed from one of the poorest countries in Europe to an upper-middle-income country. Economic water productivity is low, Albania being at the lower end across the ECA region. Albania´s overall water productivity is only USD12/m³. Irrigated agriculture is critical for inclusive development of the rural economy of Albania. The biggest share of cultivated land in the country is irrigated (57%), contributing almost 50% of total agricultural GDP. Agriculture employs about 40 percent of the total workforce. However, due to the poor quality of service delivery and land fragmentation, utilization of the equipped irrigation areas is suboptimal. The imperfections of agricultural land markets, and extreme land fragmentation is disincentivizing farmers from making long-term investments. Hence, the opportunities to lift water productivity are high, due to the large potential for upgrading and expanding irrigated agriculture. However, to keep a significant percentage of workforce in the agricultural sector (40% of workforce as of today), large-scale farming and western-style industrialization should be avoided in favor of small-scale, high-revenue agriculture with low environmental impact (like organic agriculture). Water resources are crucial for the development of Albania’s economy, in particular the sectors of energy generation, tourism and agriculture. As a percentage of total renewable resources, Albania´s water withdrawals are very low (5-6% of total renewable resources). However, water is crucial for critical sectors such as energy production (hydropower), as Albania is almost 100 per cent hydropower-dependent for electricity. However, its annual electricity generation from hydropower has fluctuated massively in recent years, leading to high imports in all but the very wettest years. For example, Albania declared an energy emergency in October 2021 and in March 2022 halted generation at 11 out of 13 of state-owned company hydropower plants due to drought. Tourism is a valuable future sector for the Albanian economy with huge potential, where economic growth could be generated. Tourism generates around 50% of the expert value of the country, and although generally not considered the most significant consumer of water, relies on high quality environmental outcomes for coastal and freshwater as well as high quality services of water supply and sanitation. However, increased pressure from the currently limited wastewater collection and treatment systems, and the destruction of pristine landscapes through hydropower plants may endanger future tourism opportunities. 66 Albania Water Security Outlook Section B – Action Planning Identification and Selection of Actions 1.11 Identification and prioritization of actions The previous section identified several challenges, risks and opportunities Albania can built upon to increase its water security. This phase considers all the learnings, insights, and ideas from the earlier steps to define specific actions that could be put in place to advance the country´s water security agenda. In total 19 actions were identified and discussed with water managers and relevant stakeholders (see Annex IV). This “long-list� was built considering the key challenges emerging within the different dimensions that need to be addressed: • Architecture, and particularly aspects related to the development of infrastructural solutions for improving sanitation coverage, wastewater treatment, water storage and the status of water supply networks. Likewise, legal reforms to improve the management of emerging issues such as water stress and allocation. • Performance, and particularly of water supply and sanitation services, management of emerging challenges such as droughts, and improved monitoring and management of water abstractions. • Outcomes, with a special focus on supporting the development and upgrading of the agricultural sector, and of irrigation in particular, diversification of renewable energies, and measures to improve the quality and status of water bodies. The following aspects influenced the selection of the proposed actions: • Opportunities: actions should target societal challenges (equal access to services, gender and equity issues). • Improvement: actions should aim at decreasing pronounced weaknesses. • Quick wins: short-term actions should especially focus on areas/topics where the situation can be improved easily and where opportunities can be easily exploited (“low-hanging fruit�). • Missing links: actions should focus on dimensions/sub-dimensions that form crucial elements/linkages between dimensions (e.g., performance might “stand in the way� between good endowment and corresponding outcomes). • Importance: actions should target crucial elements for human health and well-being (e.g., protection from hazards and environmental degradation). Accordingly, a selection of 14 actions was done with stakeholders. Table 9 below summarizes the 14 priority actions, and its connection to the challenges identified.13 The Annex IV also presents additional information regarding the different actions related to timeframe (short-medium-long), main responsible institution(s), and costs (only indicated in low-medium-high since the actions are at this stage not fully detailed). 13 The remaining actions discussed at the workshop (and included in Annex IV) are not to be disregarded but left in the “parking lot� for its later consideration. 67 Albania Water Security Outlook Table 9: Priority list of actions for increasing water security in Albania Water Competent Security Proposed Action Action Description Water Sector Challenge AMBU has a cadastre in place, but it is largely incomplete. The information on water uses and users (discharges and abstractions) is scattered Information across different institutions ((National Environmental Agency, Institute of Public Health, Albanian Geological Institute, Institute for Geosciences, availability and Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Energy, and Infrastructure). Such information is also collected in different formats, which makes difficult for exchange institutions to upload the data into the cadastre platform. Different actions are required to complete the cadastre and ensure its maintenance (Performance: Complete and maintain the over time: (i) a coordination mechanism is required to provide assistance and support to the different institutions to upload their data, (ii) funds Water Resources cadastre of water uses need to be allocated to maintain the platform, since currently the data is stored in a central server managed by AKSHI, but maintenance is Management and limited, and (iii) development of technical capacities to collect data (including metering), monitoring and enforcement of legal obligations. Having Architecture: a complete and up to date cadastre of water uses and users is also a necessary step to increase the revenues from water permitting and ensure Institutions) basin wide planning. The available River Basin Management Plans acknowledge the existence of important monitoring gaps overall, and in particular with regards to the requirements of the WFD to assess the status of surface and groundwater bodies. Investments on this front should be prioritized in the setup Monitoring of of stations, data management, analysis and reporting. status of water Key areas of intervention: Water bodies Improve the monitoring of Resources (Performance: surface, groundwater and (i) improve technical capacities for monitoring ecological status, starting with macroinvertebrates. Currently, only chlorophyll is monitored since Water Resources coastal water bodies there is a shortage on sampling but also lab capacities to do ecological analysis, Management Management and (ii) improve capacities to monitor chemical status, since currently only nutrients and physical parameters are monitored. Priority substances are Endowment) insufficiently monitored since equipment is either old and not functioning or not in place. (iii) NEA to establish a long-term contract with the Geological survey to ensure the monitoring of water quantity. The Geological survey is in charge of groundwater monitoring but does the monitoring on a contract-basis. Ensure Development of the RBMPs compliance with of Vjosa and Shkumbini and Among the 7 RBMPs that Albania needs to develop and implement, priority actions will include: EU acquis revision of the Drini Buna (i) Development of Vjosa and Shkumbini before the end of the current planning cycle (2027) (Performance: and Semani’s to ensure (ii) Revision of Drini Buna, Semani to ensure compliance with the WFD. Current plans miss basic requirements (e.g. delineation and Water Resources compliance with the WFD. characterization of WBs). This revision should also be accomplished with the current planning cycle Management and Develop the financial Architecture: Develop a financial plan to ensure the implementation of the PoMs of all 7 plans, starting with Ishem, Erzeni, and Mati. These three plans are strategies to ensure the Institutions) expected to be adopted soon by the council of ministries. implementation of the POMs of all 7 RBMPs 68 Albania Water Security Outlook Water Competent Security Proposed Action Action Description Water Sector Challenge Ensure compliance with Legal reforms to ensure the compliance with the EU acquis are underway, especially for WFD. A draft has been put forward but pending of EU acquis Advance the implementation approval from the government. For the sister directives such as the Flood Directive (FD), Nitrates Directive (ND), Groundwater Directive (GWD) (Performance: of EU water directives, and and the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) transposition is in progress and will go through the council minister decisions. Water Resources the development of the DSIP In addition to the legal transpositions, DSIP (Directive-Specific Implementation Plans) for the implementation of these Directives will have to be Management and for all sister directives developed, evaluated and prioritized based on financial needs for investments and their distribution of the costs over time. DSIP for DWD and Architecture: UWWTD have been finalized and are to adopted but DSIP will be required for all the other sister directives. Institutions) Financing and improving WSS There is legal basis for the establishment of water tariffs but it is not enforced currently. Only 50% of the water supply and sanitation utilities are Review and further develop paying their fee for abstractions and discharges, whereas irrigation users do not pay at all. Hydropower is the only user that is currently paying services the tariffing system for water their fee. These gaps are largely due to the fact that the water cadastre is incomplete and there is limited information available to enforce (Performance: uses, based on cost payments. Water Resources recovery and polluter pays Management and In addition to the collection of water fees, a possible legal reform that allows AMBU to earmark water-related taxes and fees/water use could principle of EU WFD Architecture: also contribute to ensure its financial sustainability Service delivery) Financing and improving WSS Large investments are needed to improve the coverage of the sewerage service and the treatment of polluted water and to be aligned with EU services acquis and the relevant directives (DWD, UWWTD). Close the investment gap of (Performance: the National WSS Sector The investment needs according to the National WSS Sector Strategy 2023-2030 are around 1.4 billion EUR. But there is a financing gap of Water Resources Strategy 10% (135 Mio EUR). Management and Architecture: Develop and implement a financing plan to close or reduce the financing gap. Water Service delivery) Supply and Capacity Development Sanitation Improve Capacity To operate and maintain existing and new water supply and wastewater systems, more qualified staff and more capacities are needed. Attracting (Performance: Development and Human young experts and retention of experienced staff (“career plan�) needs to be systematically improved. Implementati on of structured training and Water Resources Resource Plan at utility level certification program need to be rolled up. Currently, there is a low absorption of available funds due to lack of capacity. At the same time high Management and and O&M level total personnel costs due to overstaffing, but key staff is not adequately motivated and tends to leave if possible (brain drain). Architecture: Institutions) Financing and improving WSS Strengthen utilities to Implement the aggregation process and support the new regional utilities to become financially sustainable – towards full cost recovery but also services improve service and affordable tariffs are needed. This should include improvements of services) and the implementation of a pro-poor approach, which is already (Performance: financial sustainability foreseen in the regulation approach. Increase awareness of the public to pay for WSS services and in particular for wastewater services. 69 Albania Water Security Outlook Water Competent Security Proposed Action Action Description Water Sector Challenge Water Resources including the successful Utilities should gradually get into position to access commercial loans to free sector financing for other initiatives. Management and implementation of utility Architecture: aggregation Service delivery) Financing and improving WSS services Reactivation of existing (Performance: strategies and action plans NRW is extraordinarily high (estimation 67% consisting of administrative losses and technical losses (assumable 60% technical and 40% Water Resources to reduce Non-Revenue administrative)) A focused initiative is needed to address short term action plan (existing) addressing system wide metering (source, reservoirs, Management and Water (NRW) and to increase DMAs and end customers) and detecting and eliminating illegal connections etc. Architecture: energy efficiency of WSS Other measures to increase energy efficiency of the WSS systems (e.g., preparation and implementation of energy audits and energy efficiency Service systems measures. delivery/Infrastruc ture) Financing and improving WSS services (Performance: Improvement of Proper Asset Management is crucial and needed for all regional water utilities. Regional Water Utility Business Plans that include measurable Water Resources infrastructure planning and targets and proper Capital Investment Planning should be in line with Government targets and financing strategies. Demographic changes Management and management should be considered during the process of design review needed to ensure to adequate sizing of systems/schemes. Architecture: Service delivery/Infrastruc ture) Improve dams and In order to reduce dam failure risk, and based on revising national standards, this action aims at improving dam safety consistent with the ICOLD hydropower standards for existing dams. For this, installing dam safety monitoring systems is crucial. An important next step will be rehabilitating/modernizing infrastructure Improve dam safety and Economic the existing network of hundreds of dams built some five decades ago to serve multiple functions including flood protection, water storage and (Endowment and sustainable operation in line making them more environmentally friendly (environmental flow etc.) in line with upcoming WFD requirements. In addition, to economically Uses and Architecture: with international support dams’ operation and maintenance, there is a possibility to add new functions with the potential to generate revenue. These functions Risks Infrastructure) standards/certification can include energy generation based on floating solar panels and development of reservoir-based touristic attractions. For all the above, capacities have to be improved, but also investments done. 70 Albania Water Security Outlook Water Competent Security Proposed Action Action Description Water Sector Challenge Agriculture and Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the early 1990s, reforms have segregated land holdings into small (family-size) parcels. irrigation The current state reduces the farm profitability, makes irrigation services provision challenging, and disincentivizes local and foreign investors. (Performance: The government should support farmland consolidation or cooperation among farmers, so profitability increases to a sufficient level. At the same Service time, efficiency in smaller agricultural enterprises should be increased (through capacity building, supporting necessary investments etc.), also Delivery/Water- supporting the shift to higher added-value, organic farming. WUAs need to be strengthened, esp. regarding irrigation farming operation and related Risks) maintenance of related infrastructure (which currently remains with the municipalities). Support the shift towards more efficient, sustainable Albania’s current irrigation system mainly relies on expensive and inefficient aged infrastructure (e.g., open canal convey ance, lift-pumping). agricultural farms, including Modernizing existing irrigation systems requires reducing water losses during the conveyance and irrigation stages (e.g., by switching to drip irrigation modernisation irrigation), and by reducing the operational costs. Initial estimates indicate that around 200,000 hectares requires irrigation infrastructure rehabilitation or replacement. Furthermore, system-wide measures are required for increasing the sustainability of the existing irrigation system by improving the financial management and the sustainable O&M of irrigation systems. Expanding irrigation systems should be able to secure irrigation water availability during the dry season, by making sure there is a sufficient water storage capacity. This needs to consider the availability of water (under climate change) as well as scenarios regarding the future demand for irrigation water. Improve risk Based on the implementation of the Floods Directive (and through the development of FRMPs), this action includes the establishment of early management Further improve flood warning systems, the rehabilitation and modernization of all flood protection infrastructure that has deteriorated and at imminent risk of failure, (Performance: protection in line with the and construction of additional flood protection infrastructure, focusing on flood-prone areas and on the use of Nature Based Solutions (NBS). Water-related EU-Floods Directive This needs to be based on an analysis and subsequent improvement of the institutional setup (responsibilities, financing etc.) regarding flood Risks) management (Ministry of Agriculture, AMBU etc.). Improve risk Design a national disaster A Strategy regarding disaster management is currently under development. Such an effective national disaster management plan needs to management management plan and reflect and prioritise water-related disasters and water-borne diseases in order to mitigate future damages from water-related disasters; the plan (Performance: implement it (also at should be based on appropriate risk assessments and also include ways to mitigate also drought risks, overall considering climate change Water-related municipal level) effects. This plan needs to be coordinated e.g., with the development of Flood Risk Management Plans according to the FD. Risks) 71 Albania Water Security Outlook 1.12 Ranking of actions through an MCA approach At the dedicated workshop “Exploring priority actions to increase water security in Albania�, held on February 6th in Tirana, the selected actions were evaluated using a Multi-Criteria-Analysis (MCA). An MCA is a method to evaluate options (such as actions) using a selected range of indicators/criteria related to socioeconomic or other (e.g., environmental) factors. In this way, the broader socioeconomic effects and side effects of actions can be assessed to a broader extent than looking only at costs and the direct, physical effect. An MCA can also be used to analyze the impacts that are difficult to quantify (e.g., acceptability or environmental side effects). Several other characteristics of the actions related to the implementation – timeframe, costs and the main institution(s) responsible for implementation – were also discussed with the experts and stakeholders. For selecting the “best� actions, a set of criteria was defined to facilitate their ranking and prioritization. The selection of the criteria is also part of the MCA itself, facilitating the involvement of the participants. Also, during the MCA, the criteria were weighted against each other, defining which are more or less important than others, in the stakeholder´s view. The set of criteria and the related weighting used at the Albania workshop are depicted in Table 10 below. Table 10: Criteria and weights used to rank priority actions to improve water security in Albania CRITERION DESCRIPTION IMPORTANCE (WEIGHTING14) Effectiveness Impact on the objective(s): independent of any other 5 (140%) criteria, does the action contributes to serving the purpose? And how much? Acceptance Social and economic acceptability and whether there are 2 (80%) conflicting interests (and how significant these are). Justice and Ethics Fair allocation and affordability – are benefits arising from 3 (100%) the action distributed fairly? Are all societal groups and/or minorities benefitting from the action, or only small segments (e.g., only corporations, only urban population, only the richest segment etc.)? Feasibility Technical or administrative complexity, the timeframe of 5 (140%) the action (i.e., does it take very long to have effects) and knowledge requirements. Flexibility Is the action one-dimensional, addressing only one single 2 (80%) problem, or does it address multiple problems simultaneously? Side effects Does the action have negative or positive side effects, 3 (100%) e.g., effects on environmental quality or the labour market. 14 Using a 5-point “weighting factors� scale for the relative importance of the 7 criteria, a neutral “3� needs no adaption (100%), whereas a ranking of 1 or 2 means the result is reduced to 80 or 60%, respectively. The same applies to higher rankings of 4 or 5 (120 and 140%). 72 Albania Water Security Outlook Urgency How important is it to implement the action, e.g., towards 3 (100%) EU-requirements (EU Member States or candidates) or other international obligations? In the MCA, criteria were scored on a scale ranging from 1-5, where 1 always represented the “negative end of the scale� (i.e., low impact, low acceptance), and 5 the positive one (i.e., high impact, low complexity). Each action was assessed against each of the proposed criteria. The resulting scores for each action are included in Annex V. The output of this exercise was the ranking of the 14 actions, where the ones ranked in the first places are those scoring the highest for the different criteria (i.e., more effective, feasible, socially and economically acceptable, urgent, etc.). This ranking also helped to cluster actions into three main groups of first, second and third priority. Table 11 summarizes the resulting of the ranking. In addition, Annex V presents further details of the ranking results, going into the scoring of the actions at the “criteria level�. Table 11: Summary of the MCA assessment and ranking of actions based on the 7 criteria Green: Water Resource Management actions Yellow: Water Supply and Sanitation actions Brown: actions related to economic uses and risks Priority ACTION SCORING SCORING Time- Responsi- Costs Group OF OF frame bility CRITERIA CRITERIA WEIGHTED WEIGHTED (TOTAL) (AVERAGE) Improve Capacity Short- MIE- Medium Development/Hu Mediu AKUM man Resource m Plan at utility + O&M level 30.64 4.38 Improve Mediu AMBU/ High monitoring of m NEA water bodies 28.5 4.07 Improve Dam Short- MIE/ALBC Medium- safety and Mediu OLD High sustainable m Ministry operation of Agri- GROUP 1 26.5 3.79 culture Support shift to Mediu Ministry High more efficient, m- of Agri- sustainable Long culture, agricultural Municipali farms, including ties irrigation modernisation 26.28 3.75 Design and Short AKMC Low implement a (National national disaster Civil management plan Protection 26.2 3.74 Agency) 73 Albania Water Security Outlook Development/Re Mediu AMBU High vision of RBMPs; m Financial strategy for the implementation of the POMs 24.98 3.57 Improve Mediu MIE- Low infrastructure m AKUM - planning + 15 management Regional Water Utility Com- 24.9 3.56 panies Strengthen Short- AKUM- Medium utilities to Mediu ERRU improve service + m financial GROUP 2 sustainability including successful utility aggregation 24.84 3.55 Advance Short- AMBU Prepare implementation Mediu strategy: of EU water m Low directives - Impleme development of ntation: DSIP for all sister High Directives 24.76 3.54 Reactivate Short- AKUM- Medium- strategies/ action Mediu ERRU High plans to reduce m Non-Revenue Water + to increase energy efficiency of WSS systems 24.66 3.52 Complete/mainta Short- AMBU High in the register of Mediu water uses 24.44 3.49 m Further improve Long Ministry High flood protection of Agri- in line with the culture. EU-Floods AMBU, Directive Municipali GROUP 3 24.34 3.48 ties Review + further Mediu AMBU Low develop the m tariffing system for water uses 22.9 3.27 Close investment Mediu MIE- High gap of the m AKUM- National WSS ERRU Sector Strategy 22.88 3.27 74 Albania Water Security Outlook 1.13 Description of Priority Actions and Pathway to increase Water Security While the MCA-process can only give indications regarding the priority actions to increase Water Security (since it is highly dependent on the composition of experts participating at the second workshop), some key conclusions can be drawn when combined with the outcomes of the analysis in the current report, focusing also on upcoming climate change effects: Many significant risks are already acknowledged and their solution underway, yet more remains to be done. For example, the significant issues of strengthening the water and sewage utilities, advancing the implementation of EU-Directives, reducing NRW and closing the investment gaps of the WSS sector have a lower urgency than what can be expected from the risk analysis, yet significant efforts are underway in that direction, so these issues remain pertinent but are to some extent already tackled. The institutional setup of the water sector is generally good, yet it´s practical implementation (including capacity development) needs to be improved. Roles and responsibilities are delineated between water institutions in Albania but “sharpening� and enhanced coordination is needed. The water legislation reform is underway and needs to be urgently completed. This is crucially linked to the development and implementation of the RBMPs, which is underway, yet need further efforts in order to show more significant effects. Here, improving Capacity Development/Human Resource Plan at utility level but also of the key water management authorities remains an important supporting activity to be tackled. Topics linked to specific water uses and the management of water-related risks are high on the priority list. This relates to improvement of dam safety and sustainable operation, but also generally to the strategic approach, institutional interplay and financing of measures towards disaster management (focusing on droughts and floods, where improvements at various levels are urgently needed). Data/information acquisition but also systematic, integrated and efficient data/information management across institutions remain important challenges that need to be (further) tackled. Key enabling conditions for better water management (e.g., monitoring of water bodies, having a complete register of water uses and users for a usable water accounting) are not fulfilled, thus need to receive further efforts (financial, but also institutional strengthening of the relevant authorities). There is a clear need to further integrate and align various sectoral polices in order to achieve water security. Based on the Nexus approach, various other relevant polices (e.g. regarding energy, food/agriculture, industry, tourism, environment/nature protection) need to be stronger integrated/aligned with water policy. Not only will such integration foster water security, but at the same time provide the enabling conditions for the sustainable development and growth of these sectors. The National Strategy of Water Resources Integrated Management (2018-2027) and - at an even more strategic level - the National Strategy for Development and (European) Integration (2015-2020 and 2022-2030) already provide a good entry point. For this integration, actions related to Nature Based Solutions, Circular Economy and adaptation to climate change can offer multiple benefits and should be included in all related sectoral strategies, plans and specific projects. Overall, the mix of measures/actions is crucial. More important than the distinction of priorities (first, second or third priority) is the understanding that a mix of actions is necessary to improve water security in Albania - they cannot be considered independently of each other. The rough classification of the measures according to their priority depends on a number of factors, including the assessment of the different evaluation criteria of the MCA approach. The feasibility and acceptance of the proposed measures depend very much on the political will and involvement of the communities and different stakeholders (awareness raising). 75 Albania Water Security Outlook References Albanian National Committee of Large Dams (ALBCOLD) 2022. Large Dams in Albania and ALBCOLD. October 2022. AQUASTAT 2020. FAO Statistics on water use and infrastructure. Available at: https://www.fao.org/aquastat/en/ AQUEDUCT 2022. World Resources Institute. Available at https://www.wri.org/aqueduct [last visit: December 2022] Burek, P., Satoh, Y., Kahil, T., Tang, T., Greve, P., Smilovic, M., Guillaumont, L., Zhao, F.,Wada, Y. (2020). Development of the Community Water Model (CWatM v1.04). A high-resolution hydrological model for global and regional assessment of integrated water resources management. Geosci. Model. Dev. 13, 3267–3298. European Commission 2018. Regional strategy for sustainable hydropower development. European Commission - Directorate General Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. Western Balkans Regional Cooperation Unit. European Environment Agency 2020. Urban Wastewater Treatment in Europe. Available at: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/urban-waste-water-treatment/urban-waste- water-treatment-assessment-5 [Last visit: 21 June 2022] Eurostat 2020. Water Statistics: Water as a resource. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics- explained/index.php?title=Water_statistics#Water_as_a_resource [Last visit: 28 June, 2022] FAO – Food and Agricultural Organization 2018. “National Strategy of Water Resources Integrated Management 2018-2027� https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/alb181221.pdf via https://leap.unep.org/countries/al/national-legislation/national-strategy-water-resources-integrated- management-2018-2027. Accessed February 2023. FAO 2022. AQUASTAT Core Database. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Database accessed in November 2022. Gallop, P., Ralev, A. 2022. Why hydropower in Southeast Europe is a risky investment. Report by WWF, Euronatur, Riverwatch, CEE Bankwatch Network. Gassert, F., M. Landis, M. Luck, P. Reig,and T. Shiao. 2014. “Aqueduct Global Maps 2.1.� Working Paper. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at http://www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-metadata-global Hofste, R., S. Kuzma, S. Walker, E.H. Sutanudjaja, et. al. 2019. “Aqueduct 3.0: Updated Decision- Relevant Global Water Risk Indicators.� Technical Note. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at: https://www.wri.org/publication/aqueduct-30. Instat 2023. Institut of Statistics of the Republic of Albania. Census Data 2022. https://www.instat.gov.al/en/figures/key-figures/ (accessed March 2023). International Energy Agency (IEA) 2021. Electricity Information 2021 Edition available at: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/910f28b7-5276-4599-a349- 097ab58aeea8/Ele_documentation.pdf [Last visit: 21 June 2022] International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 2019. Global Spatially-Disaggregated Crop Production Statistics Data for 2010 Version 1.0. Harvard Dataverse. doi:10.7910/DVN/PRFF8V [Last visit: 1 July 2022] Jones, B., O’Neill, B.C. 2016. Spatially explicit global population scenarios are consistent with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Environmental Research Letters 11, 84003. 76 Albania Water Security Outlook Lushaj, B. 2016. The transboundary waters of rivers, lakes, groundwater, flood risk assessment and the measures for flood mitigation in Albania, doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2360.6802. Miho, A., Shuka, L., Çullaj, A., and Bachofen, R. 2009. "Environmental Analyses of Bovilla Watershed (Albania) – An Overview". In Aleko Miho; Alqiviadh Çullaj; Reinhard Bachofen (eds.). Bovilla (Albania) Limnological Study. Tirana: Julvin. MARD 2016. Preparation and Implementation of an IWRM Strategy National Strategy for Integrated Water Resources Management. MARD 2019. “National Strategy For Irrigation, And Drainage 2019 – 2031 And Action Plan�. Namara, R., Ranu, S., Waalewijn, P., Drade, D., Demukaj, A. 2022. "The Future of Water in Agriculture in Albania: A Broad Sector Rethinking." World Bank, Washington, DC. MHSP 2019. Report on the Implementation of Roma Integration Public Policy in Albania for 2019. Republic of Albania Council of Ministers 2016. National Strategy for Development and Integration 2015- 2020 Republic of Albania Council of Ministers 2023. National Strategy for Development and European Integration 2022–2030 Schwarz, U. 2022. Hydropower Projects on Balkan Rivers – 2022 Update. RiverWatch & EuroNatur, Vienna/Radolfzell UNDP 2018. Roma at a glance. Albania. Factsheet. https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/migration/eurasia/Factsheet_ALBANIA_Roma.pdf UNEP-DHI 2009. Integrated Water Resources Management in Action. WWAP, DHI Water Policy. UNEP-DHI United Nations Environment Programme, Centre on Water and Environment 2020. Country Survey Instrument for SDG Indicator 6.5.1 for Albania authored by GERTA LUBONJA from WRMA. Available at: http://iwrmdataportal.unepdhi.org/country-reports [last visit: 22 February 2023] UNFCCC 2021. Albania revised national determined contribution (NDC). NDC Registry. Retrieved May 10th, 2023, from: https://unfccc.int/NDCREG UNISDR 2008. Strengthening Hydrometeorological Services in Southeastern Europe: Southeastern Europe Disaster Risk Mitigation and Adaptation Programme. US Department of Commerce 2023. International Trade Administration. Albania – Country Commercial Guide (https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/albania-agricultural-sector-agr; accessed April 2023). Wada, Y., van Beek, L.P.H., and Bierkens, M.F.P. 2011. Modelling global water stress of the recent past: on the relative importance of trends in water demand and climate variability, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 3785–3808. WAREG – European Water Regulators 2015. “An Analy sis of Water Efficiency KPIs in WAREG Member Countries�. Milano, Italy. Water Regulator Association WAREG 2021. Water Regulatory Governance across Europe. WHO/UNICEF Joint Water Supply, & Sanitation Monitoring Programme. 2021. Progress on drinking water and sanitation: 2021 Update. World Health Organization Wolf, M.J., Emerson, J.W., Esty, D.C., de Sherbinin, A., Wendling, Z.A., et al. 2022 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. epi.yale.edu World Bank 2015. Water and Wastewater services in the Danube region. State of the Sector. Update 2015. Country Profile: Albania. Danube Water Program. 77 Albania Water Security Outlook World Bank 2018. Beyond Utility Reach? How to Close the Urban - Rural Access Gap. A Review of Rural Water and Sanitation Services in seven Countries of the Danube Region. World Bank 2019. A State of the Sector – 2018 Update. Water and Wastewater Services in the Danube Region. World Bank 2022. World Bank Indicators and Data. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator World Bank 2022a. “Albania National Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Modernization Program�. Washington, DC. World Bank 2022b. Climate Change Knowledge Portal. Retrieve June 1st, 2022, from: https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/ World Bank 2023. The world Bank in Albania. Country Overview. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/albania/overview#1 (accessed March 2023). WRA – Water Regulatory Authority of Albania 2021. “Report on the Performance on the Water Supply and Sewerage Utilities 2021�. Tirana, Albania. 78 Albania Water Security Outlook Annex I: List of indicators used in the O-WM WATER SECTOR OUTCOMES Social 1. Basic and safely managed drinking water coverage CORE QUANTITATIVE 2. Basic and safely managed drinking water coverage urban/rural CORE QUANTITATIVE 3. Basic and safely managed sanitation coverage CORE QUANTITATIVE 4. Basic and safely managed sanitation coverage urban/rural CORE QUANTITATIVE 5. Number of DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) due to unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing CORE QUANTITATIVE 6. Mortality rate attributable to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene (unsafe WASH services) CORE QUANTITATIVE 7. Number of people affected by floods CORE QUANTITATIVE 8. Exposure of people to flood risks CORE QUALITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 9. Exposure of people to drought risks CORE QUALITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 10. Exposure of people to water stress CORE QUALITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 11. Affordability of WASH services SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 12. Deaths from floods SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 13. Non-availability of flush toilets SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 14. Number of diarrheal DALYs from inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 15. Percentage of deaths caused by diarrhea in children under 5 years of age SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE Environmental 16. Share of wastewater safely treated CORE QUANTITATIVE 17. Proportion of water bodies with good ambient water quality (%) CORE QUANTITATIVE 18. Wetland loss CORE QUANTITATIVE 19. Groundwater decline CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 20. Water stress ratio CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 21. Share of surface water bodies (rivers) with good ecological status (EU WFD) SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 22. Share of surface water bodies (lakes) with good ecological status (EU WFD) SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 23. Share of groundwater bodies with good chemical status (WFD) SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 24. Share of groundwater bodies with good quantitative status (WFD) SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 25. Terrestrial and marine protected areas SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE Economic 79 Albania Water Security Outlook 26. Water use efficiency per sector CORE QUANTITATIVE 27. Economic water productivity CORE QUALITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 28. Agricultural gross value generated by irrigated agriculture CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 29. Electricity production from hydroelectric sources CORE QUANTITATIVE 30. Share of hydropower in total primary energy supply CORE QUANTITATIVE 31. Tourism share of GDP SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 32. Water productivity of irrigation SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE 33. Water productivity of industry SUPPORTING QUANTITATIVE WATER SECTOR PERFORMANCE Management of water resources 34. Degree of implementation of water resources management instruments CORE QUALITATIVE 35. Availability and adequacy of national water resources management instruments SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 36. Availability and adequacy of basin management instruments SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 37. Availability and adequacy of aquifer management instruments SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 38. Availability and adequacy of national management instruments to ensure efficient and sustainable water use SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 39. Availability and adequacy of water quality management instruments SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 40. Data collection and sharing within countries and across borders SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE Delivery of Water Services 41. Operating cost coverage CORE QUANTITATIVE 42. Electrical energy costs as percentage of operational costs CORE QUANTITATIVE 43. Level of water and sanitation strategic planning and strategic investment planning SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 44. Maturity of water and sanitation performance monitoring framework SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 45. Quality of rural water and sanitation infrastructure operation and maintenance system SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 46. Quality of asset management SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 47. Quality of irrigation infrastructure, investments, and operation and maintenance system SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE Mitigation of risk 48. Riverine flood risk – population affected CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 49. Riverine flood risk – monetary CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 50. Drought risk CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 51. Management instruments to deal with droughts SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 52. Management instruments to deal with floods SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 80 Albania Water Security Outlook WATER SECTOR ARCHITECTURE Institutions 53. Fragile State Index (FSI) CORE QUANTITATIVE 54. Degree of IWRM implementation CORE QUANTITATIVE 55. Level of legal and policy framework maturity SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 56. Level of operationalization of international treaties SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 57. Variety of government institutions registered in FAO database SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE Infrastructure 58. Per capita dam storage capacity CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 59. Total water supply coverage by piped improved facilities CORE QUANTITATIVE 60. Total sanitation coverage by sewer facilities CORE QUANTITATIVE 61. Non-revenue water CORE QUANTITATIVE 62. Continuity of service CORE QUANTITATIVE 63. Wastewater treatment CORE QUANTITATIVE 64. Share of cultivated land under irrigation CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 65. Share of irrigated land with flood irrigation CORE QUANTITATIVE 66. Share of irrigated land with sprinkler irrigation CORE QUANTITATIVE 67. Share of irrigated land with drip irrigation CORE QUANTITATIVE 68. Level of adequacy of water supply infrastructure SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 69. Adequacy of water and sanitation design standards and guidelines and approval process SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 70. Level of adequacy of irrigation infrastructure SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 71. Irrigation infrastructure financing SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE 72. Level of adequacy reservoir/hydropower infrastructure SUPPORTING QUALITATIVE WATER SECTOR ENDOWMENT Supply 73. Total renewable water resources per capita CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 74. Share of surface water to total water availability CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 75. Share of groundwater to total water availability CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 76. Share of non-conventional water resources to total availability CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 77. Transboundary dependency ratio CORE QUANTITATIVE 78. Water quality index CORE QUANTITATIVE 79. Inter-annual variability CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 81 Albania Water Security Outlook 80. Seasonal variability CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL Demand 81. Water withdrawal per capita CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 82. Share of surface water to total withdrawals CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 83. Share of groundwater to total withdrawal CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 84. Share of agriculture water use to total water withdrawals CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 85. Share of industrial water use to total water withdrawals CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 86. Share of municipal water use to total water withdrawals CORE QUANTITATIVE SUBNATIONAL 82 Albania Water Security Outlook Annex II: Results of indicator assessment Albania: Core Indicator Assessment VALUE USED RANGE Ind. Number Dimension Sub-dimension Indicator name Unit (either Global RANGE BAND DESCRIPTION BAND or Local Data) Basic and safely MEDIUM- 86-95 high coverage 1 Outcomes Social managed drinking % population HIGH water coverage (%) 95.1 Basic and safely HIGH 91-100 (and 100+): Very small to no gap in service Ratio rural-urban managed drinking provision remaining. 2 Outcomes Social (rural/urban x 100): water coverage (%) 0-100 rural/urban 98 Basic and safely HIGH 96 (97 is the regional average WHO region Europe) 3 Outcomes Social managed sanitation % population - 100 coverage (%) 99.3 Basic and safely HIGH 91-100 (and 100+): Very small to no gap in service Ratio rural-urban managed sanitation provision remaining. 4 Outcomes Social (rural/urban x 100): coverage (%) 0-100 rural/urban 100 Number of DALYs MEDIUM 150-300 (disability-adjusted life years) due to DALYs/100.000 5 Outcomes Social unsafe water, inhabitants sanitation and handwashing 132 MEDIUM- 0.5-0.1 Mortality rate People affected HIGH 6 Outcomes Social attributable to unsafe annually per water, sanitation, 100.000 inhabitants 0.17 83 Albania Water Security Outlook and hygiene (unsafe WASH services) Number of people LOW- 100-200: Population seriously affected by flooding, affected by People affected MEDIUM hinting at deficits in adequate flood risk 7 Outcomes Social floods/a/100k annually per management and/or high exposure. inhabitants 1980- 100.000 inhabitants 2021 166 MEDIUM- 20-40 People living in areas HIGH 10 Outcomes Social % population under water stress 27 LOW 0-50%: Very low amounts of wastewater are being safely treated, putting people´s health and aquatic Share of wastewater 16 Outcomes Environmental Percentage [%] ecosystems at risk; investments and political will safely treated (%) needed to create, regulate and enforce pollution 13 control measures. No Value No Value Proportion of bodies of water with good 17 Outcomes Environmental Percentage [%] ambient water quality (%) MEDIUM 51-75: Losses in wetland area reduced; land-use 18 Outcomes Environmental Wetland loss Score 0-100 planning measures/protection policies seem to work 54.4 (or that very little intact wetlands are left). Groundwater table HIGH Very slow or no decline: 0-1 (<0 cm/y) 19 Outcomes Environmental cm/yr decline -0.036057077 20 Outcomes Environmental Water stress ratio Percentage [%] 7.1 HIGH 10-0%; Very low stress 84 Albania Water Security Outlook 31-60: Low water use efficiency; agricultural sector Water use efficiency LOW- 26 Outcomes Economic USD/m3 59.0 important user of water, losses/low productivity per sector MEDIUM common. LOW 0-10: Very low water use efficiency, due to high Economic water 27 Outcomes Economic USD/m3 agricultural production, high losses and/or low productivity 6.65 productivity. Agricultural gross MEDIUM 20-50% 28 Outcomes Economic value generated by Percentage [%] irrigated agriculture 47.6 Electricity production HIGH >80% 29 Outcomes Economic from hydroelectric % Percentage [%] sources 100 Share of hydropower HIGH >20% 30 Outcomes Economic in total primary Percentage [%]% energy supply 21 Degree of MEDIUM Some management instruments implemented on a implementation of more long-term basis, with adequate geographic Management of 34 Performance water resources 0-100 and stakeholder coverage. Water Resources management instruments 47 Delivery of Water Operating cost MEDIUM- Slightly above 1: Utilities are able to save for minor 41 Performance ratio Services coverage (ratio) 1.08 HIGH capital maintenance Electrical energy MEDIUM- 21-40% Delivery of Water HIGH 42 Performance costs as percentage Percentage [%] Services of operational costs 37.92 Riverine flood risk - % population per LOW 2+ 48 Performance Mitigation of Risks population affected year 2.342813384 85 Albania Water Security Outlook Riverine flood risk - LOW 2+ 49 Performance Mitigation of Risks % GDP per year monetory 2.7906747 Rating between 1 LOW- 2 50 Performance Mitigation of Risks Drought Risk and 5 3.079411593 MEDIUM Institutions and Fragile State Index Index between 0 MEDIUM Warning to stable 51-70 53 Architecture governance (FSI) and 120 59.0 Institutions and Degree of IWRM Degree between 0 LOW- Medium low 31-50 54 Architecture governance implementation and 100 47 MEDIUM MEDIUM- 500-1500 HIGH Per capita dam 58 Architecture Infrastructure m3/person storage capacity 1397.283 Total water supply MEDIUM 60-80% coverage by piped 59 Architecture Infrastructure Percentage [%] improved facilities (%) 76.8 Total sanitation MEDIUM 40-60% 60 Architecture Infrastructure coverage by sewer Percentage [%] facilities (%) 52% LOW >60% Non-revenue water 61 Architecture Infrastructure Percentage [%] Range relating to bottom » 10 utilities as per IBNET (%) 66.63 Utilities in developing countries have up to 75% 62 Architecture Infrastructure Continuity of service h/day 14.65 LOW 0-15 services unreliable Wastewater Score between 0 MEDIUM 21-50 medium connection and treatment rate 63 Architecture Infrastructure treatment and 100 49.0 86 Albania Water Security Outlook Share of cultivated Percentage [%] 64 Architecture Infrastructure 57.44 Informative Indicators land under irrigation Share of irrigated Percentage [%] 65 Architecture Infrastructure land with flood 99.9 Informative Indicators irrigation Share of irrigated Percentage [%] 66 Architecture Infrastructure land with sprinkler 0.001 Informative Indicators irrigation Share of irrigated Percentage [%] 67 Architecture Infrastructure land with drip 0 Informative Indicators irrigation Total Renewable MEDIUM- 10000-20000: water rich 73 Endowment Supply Water Resources per m3/year/person HIGH capita 14280 Share of surface Percentage [%] 74 Endowment Supply water to total water 83 Informative Indicators availability Share of Percentage [%] 75 Endowment Supply groundwater to total 17 Informative Indicators water availability Share of non- Percentage [%] conventional water 76 Endowment Supply No Value No Value resources to total availability Transboundary Percentage [%] MEDIUM- 25-10%: Low dependence on upstream countries 77 Endowment Supply Dependence Ratio 10.92715232 HIGH 87 Albania Water Security Outlook MEDIUM 40-60 Drinking Water 78 Endowment Supply Score 0-100 Quality Index 50.2 Interannual coefficient of MEDIUM- 0.5-0.25 79 Endowment Supply HIGH Variability variation 0.37 MEDIUM 1.00-0.66 Medium coefficient of 80 Endowment Supply Seasonal Variability variation 0.87 Water Withdrawal MEDIUM- 500-100 81 Endowment Demand m3/year/person 332.3227 per capita HIGH Share of Surface Percentage [%] 82 Endowment Demand water to total water 91 Informative Indicators withdrawal Share of Percentage [%] 83 Endowment Demand groundwater to total 9 Informative Indicators water withdrawal Share of Agriculture Percentage [%] LOW- 80-60% (70%: global average) 84 Endowment Demand water use to total MEDIUM water withdrawal 68.16284 Share of Industrial Percentage [%] LOW- 8-15% 85 Endowment Demand water use to total MEDIUM water withdrawal 10.22965 Share of Municipal Percentage [%] LOW- 10-30%; (global average: 11%, ECA average: 12%) 86 Endowment Demand water use to total MEDIUM water withdrawal 21.60752 88 Albania Water Security Outlook Qualitative Supporting indicators assessment sheets Indicator 35: Availability of National Water Resources Management Strategy • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band • Performance/Water Availability. A national water resources The Strategy (2018-2030) is a long-term planning document that provides a good overview Resources management strategy/plan has been developed of the country main water related challenges and outlines the vision and proposed areas of Management and adopted intervention (action planning). It includes an assessment of the financial needs, considering • Availability and the state budget and from third parties (loans, etc). It also maps who are the key stakeholders Scope. The strategy/plan identifies the main water adequacy of and institutions involved. The Strategy is also aligned with the main EU water directives, challenges, but it does not outline a clear action National Water although one key area oi interventions is to continue aligning the Albanian regulatory plan (measures, financing, responsibilities) Resources framework and ensure compliance with all relevant directives. Details of the mail goals and Management Implementation, evaluation, and monitoring. The proposed actions is summarized in the excel file. As outlined in several interviews and also Instruments strategy/plan is in process of implementation, some policy documents, the main challenge right now is to secure funding for its • MEDIUM although important gaps remain. implementation. Distance to proposed targets is still high. 89 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 36: Availability and Adequacy of River Basin Management Plans • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band Availability. River Basin Management Plan(s) Out of the 7 RBMPs that need to be developed, only 5 are available. Among the 5, 3 are developed and adopted (or in process) relatively well aligned with WFD and other two to a lesser extent. These plans address core aspects such as water accounting (availability and demands), climate change projections, Scope. The plan only addresses some of the critical characterization of water bodies, assessment of pressures, and impacts, and the development areas (water protection, allocation, availability, • Performance/Water of a PoM. The plans also include an economic analysis of water uses and an assessment of demands, and financing). No program of measures Resources cost-recovery level. The main gaps of these plans are related to the limited monitoring outlined. Management (infrastructural deficiencies, but also limited human and technical capacities to do the • Availability and Implementation, evaluation, and monitoring. Plans assessment and periodic monitoring). None of the plans is implemented yet. The three plans Adequacy of River have not been implemented. aligned with WDF are expected to be adopted at the beginning of 2023. They public Basin Management consultation has just finished. The characterization of water bodies entails the classification Plans of water bodies into SW, GW, transitional, etc and the determination of the reference • LOW-MEDIUM conditions. NO assessment status has yet been included. The limited data available for the water accounting is also an important gap since the level of confidence with the assessment provided is low. The funding for the PoM is not secured, as the strategy also does not have secured funding. 90 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 37. Availability and adequacy of Aquifer Management Instruments • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band • Performance/Water Availability. No Aquifer management plan(s) in Management of GW bodies is required by the Groundwater Directive. Albania is not yet Resources place or limited and only through short-term ad- compliant with this Directive, nor with the Nitrates Directive. However, given the importance Management hoc projects. of GW for drinking purposes, some steps have been taken forward. The RBMP contains a • Availability and description of the drinking water protection areas, although the management plan for these adequacy of areas is not in place. As indicated in some plans, An urgent priority for River Basin Authority Aquifer (AMBU) is to identify, register and enforce all Permits of such abstractions and delineate and Management Instruments publish the source protection zones. At the moment, not all abstractions are registered and • LOW the main achievement has been to map the protection zones as a first step. 91 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 38. Availability and adequacy of National Management Instruments to ensure efficient and sustainable water use • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band • Performance/Water Availability. Efficiency and sustainable use plans The water law does provide the need for promoting water use efficiency and/or enable water Resources Management have been developed and adopted demand management approaches, but there is not more information available (lack of • Availability and information). Scope. Plans are addressing efficiency adequacy of improvements in just very few of critical sectors National (WASH, irrigation, industrial, hydropower) Management Instruments to Implementation, evaluation, and monitoring. The ensure efficient plan(s) has not been implemented and sustainable water use • LOW-MEDIUM 92 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 39. Availability and adequacy of National Water Quality Management Instruments • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band Availability. Water quality plans have been The monitoring system is insufficient, although efforts have been invested in trying to work • Performance/Water developed and adopted with existing data to monitor drinking water quality and ambient quality. This effort is Resources reflected in all 5 RBMPs, and also at the municipal level at the time of securing safe drinking Scope. Plans are addressing water quality along Management water. The gaps to achieve a good management of water quality are high and the main most of the critical areas (drinking, bathing, • Availability and constrains are: adequacy of environmental protection) but without outlining an National Water action plan/program of measures Limited infrastructure (monitoring stations) to monitor water quality Quality Implementation, evaluation, and monitoring. Plans Limited human and technical capacities to conduct the assessments of water quality according Management are partially implemented, with important gaps to the EU requirements Instruments remaining • MEDIUM Legal framework still needs to incorporate key EU requirements of the monitoring of chemical pollutants, GW directive requirements, and nitrate directive among others 93 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 40. Data collection and sharing between countries and across borders • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band • Performance/Water Availability. Data collection is adequate in terms of The water law provides requirements for ensuring data exchange and transparency, but in Resources type (water resources availability/demand, quality, fact data is not easily accessible. There are also information gaps regarding this topic. Management environmental assessment, wastewater, bathing), • Data collection and format (statistics, maps, reports) and spatial and sharing between temporal coverage countries and across borders • MEDIUM Access. Data is accessible only upon request 94 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 43. Level of water and sanitation strategic planning and strategic investment planning • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band 1. The National Strategy for the Water Supply and Sewerage Sector 2020-2030 has defined the main challenges of the Water Supply and Sewerage Sector that are: Governance, Financing and Management: Scarce and insufficient financing to achieve the 1.Strategy government's strategic objectives and the lack of economies of scale make it difficult for • Performance/Delivery joint-stock water supply and sanitation companies to finance and implement major capital 2.Investment Plan of water services investment programs. Rules for their capture: • Level of water and 3.Progress monitoring system • Full recovery of operational costs and ex penses for maintenance, payment of debts and sanitation strategic 4.Link to management capital expenses for repairs and replacements is achieved. planning and • Initiation of the program to encourage aggregation of UKs (Utility Companies). strategic investment planning • Improving UK sector workforce capacity through training and certification. • MEDIUM Up to two elements in place and need for • Improvement of Corporate Governance through increased accountability and transparency improvement/update. at the central and local level. • Improving the efficiency of collection of invoices issued to achieve the best international practices and to ensure higher income for UKs. 2. This document lacks a detailed plan for the reorganization of the governance of the sector. 95 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 44. Maturity of water and sanitation performance monitoring framework • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band Indicators are defined in the national water sector For more than 10 years Albania has established a benchmarking and monitoring system • Performance/Delivery and targets of the water sector are defined. where all water utilities report data on regular basis. Indicators are defined in National Water of water services Sector Strategy and both MIE/ERRU are responsible institutions to track progress. Data • Maturity of water accuracy remains a big challenge. and sanitation Regular reporting is defined, and the reported performance indicators are reviewed against the targets. monitoring framework • MEDIUM-HIGH The indicator framework and the reports can be improved. 96 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 45. Quality of rural water and sanitation infrastructure operation and maintenance system • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band • O&M clustered into bigger service areas There are some O&M policies and procedures developed for big water utilities. But they are • Or support to communities is available • Regular drinking water quality testing no proper O&M System/ Manuals or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). • Performance/Delivery of water services O&M in this category of water utilities are based on these policies and carried out according • Quality of rural water to personal experience and knowledge of operators. and sanitation infrastructure In most of the Water Utilities in Albania there are no schedules for planned preventive operation and maintenance. Maintenance is limited to repairs in case of problems or failure. maintenance system For the Administrative Units within the service area of the water utilities, O&M mostly is • MEDIUM-HIGH carried out according to the experience of the operational staff appointed to this area with minor support from the regional operator. 97 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 46. Quality of asset management • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band Basic asset management systems in all urban Asset Management has been a key priority for the water reforms but very little is done from areas the water operators. Proper asset inventory is lacking especially in the rural areas. AM concept is introduced in GIZ SEEAM project where utilities participated in different phases but very little is completed. Deficits only in rural areas Asset inventory is more complete for the urbanized areas. Yet, no proper asset management • Performance/Delivery is done even for the urban areas. The water companies lack the resources and the proper of water services documentation of assets in their systems. • Quality of asset Maintenance insufficiently financed, no mechanism management in place The maintenance funding is evident more in very few big utilities. The medium-small utilities • MEDIUM are underestimating the maintenance costs, with no proper funding for repair and replacements of assets. The CAPEX financial planning is mainly done through the process of Business Planning, where utilities are able to define their needs and develop the financial plan either to be funded by their own sources or through national and international investment plan. Again, this is more evident in big or well performing utilities such as Tirana, Korca, Lezhe. 98 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 47. Quality of irrigation infrastructure, investments and operation and maintenance system • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development contributes for operation and maintenance of the main irrigation infrastructure, while 61 municipalities contribute for • Performance/Delivery operation and maintenance of the irrigation infrastructure transferred to their ownership. Small portion of O&M are paid by users of water services • Quality of irrigation Medium cost recovery Water users pay partially for operation and maintenance. infrastructure, Drainage infrastructure is not considered For the climatic conditions of our country, drainage is considered an important process, first investments, and important of all to remove excess water and improve soil moisture control operation and maintenance system The participation of women in the irrigation process is relatively low. Social and environmental impacts are ignored • MEDIUM The average and high level of water use has influenced to the growth of agricultural products, especially those with high market value and has improving the income of farmers. 99 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 51. Management instruments to deal with drought • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band According to the annual report of the World Risk of the United Nations University, which calculates the Risk Index of Disasters for 181 countries based on exposure, susceptibility, • Performance/Mitigation vulnerability and coping and adaptive capacities, Albania is consistently ranked first in of Risks Europe for the period 2011-2019, and occupies the 61st place in the world for 2019. • Management No action exists to manage droughts and instruments to deal associated risks According to the comparative analysis of the regions for the risks presented in the six with drought thematic reports, the regions most exposed to disasters in the country include Tirana and • LOW Vlora (high risk), followed by Durrës, Elbasan, Fieri and Shkodra (medium to high risk). Berati, Dibra, Korça and Kukësi (medium risk), as well as Gjirokastra and Lezha (low to medium risk) are less endangered in terms of the eight main risks. 100 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 52. Management instruments to deal with floods • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band • Performance/Mitigation Less than 50% of needed plans in place. FRMP completed in 3 out of 8 zones. of Risks • Management instruments to deal with floods • LOW-MEDIUM 101 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 55. Level of legal and policy framework maturity • Sub Dimension • Indicator Range band description Assessment sheet description • Range Band Water resource law (law 111/2012 "On Water Resources Management") is in place since 2012, amended in 2018, leading to establishment of a water resource management agency New IWRM Law is drafted, adoption is expected in 2023, alignment with EU Directives, 13 bye laws EUSIWM, funded by EU and implemented by ADA, includes a component to develop capacity sustainably and second project with support of the Sweden International Development Agency aims to increase the Does the water governance system cover the key elements of the necessary institutional capacities of the Water Resources Management Agency (2021-2024) spectrum of legal, regulatory, policy and Water allocation is prescribed in the IWRM law and detailed by the DCM No. 550 dated 15/07/2020 (by law) • Architecture/ institutional arrangements to manage on permit authorisation concession for use of water resources. Regulatory water effectively and efficiently? What framework are the strengths and main Inspections and enforcement of compliance with permit conditions are done by: National Environment Agency and shortcomings? of the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Water Resources Management Agency AMBU under the Prime institutions Ministry and the National Inspectorate for the Protection of the Territory; Independent Regulatory Authority 1. Legal framework complete and • Level of for water supply and sewerage service provision since 1998 adequate under current legal and situation Allocation of water based on data and monitoring of the collective impact of all uses on the water resource policy 2. Reforms are possible or ongoing remain an area for improvement framework under the current framework to maturity instil change The current legal framework is premised on: • MEDIUM- 3. Legal framework supports HIGH • Law No. 8102, dated 28.03.1996, as amended, “On the Regulatory Framework of Water S upply and sector policies 1. Policies and strategies exist with Wastewater Disposal and Treatment Sector� critical elements covered some • Law No. 9902, dated 17.04.2008, as amended, “On Consumer Protection�; areas need update • Law No. 8480, dated 27.05.1999, “On Functioning of Collegial Bodies of State Administration and Public Authorities� • Water Code, DCO No. 1304 dated 11.12.2009 • Law 111/2012 "On Water Resources Management", amended in 2018 which also brought the establishment of the Water Resources Management Agency. • Law 9115, 24.07.2003 “On Environmental treatment of wastewater� 102 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 56. Level of operationalization of international treaties • Sub Dimension • Indicator Range band description Assessment sheet description • Range Band Seven River Basins delineated in terms of territorial and hydrographic borders, defined composition of the River Basin Councils for: 1. Drin-Buna Water Basin (21 members), with its RBC office based in Shkodra, 2. Mati Water Basin (19 members), with its RBC office based in Lezha, 3. Ishëm Water Basin (15 members), with its RBC office based in Durres, 4. Erzeni Water Basin (15 members), with its RBC office based in Tirana, 5. Shkumbin Water Basin (19 members), with its RBC office based in Elbasan, 6. Semani Water Basin (31 members), with its RBC office based in Fier, • Architecture/ 7. Vjosa Water Basin (25 members), with its RBC office based in Vlora Regulatory National Water Cadastre was established at AMNBU in 2020; in 2019 and agreement on data population framework of the national water Cadastre between the Water Resources Management Agency (AMBU) and the Institute Most relevant international treaties have and of Geosciences and Energy, Water and Environment (IGJEUM) been established and joined institutions • Level of The processes to negotiate or join some As per the international data base used (International Freshwater Treaties Database, Oregon State operationaliz are ongoing University), Albania signed 9 treaties, some of them old and related to specific issues such as hydropower ation of use and navigation and some key ones outdated There is effort to operationalise treaties international e.g., monitoring Treaty on a permanent commission for transboundary freshwater issues of 2003 between Albania and Greece treaties is outdated, is only one legal act of the National Territory Council of 2020 on adopting the protected areas • MEDIUM- boundaries, were Vjosa River is added. HIGH Albania is part of several conventions ratified by law, such as the Aarhus Convention (ratified in 2000), the ESPOO Convention (ratified in 2006), the Barcelona Convention (ratified in 2000) and the Helsinki Convention (ratified in 2014). Two recent Agreements between Albania and Montenegro formalised in 2018 and 19 1. Agreement on establishing transboundary cooperation for water resources management and the 2. Establishment of the Special Commission on transboundary water administration, chaired by the deputy Minister of the Ministry for EU and Foreign affairs. 103 Albania Water Security Outlook The Memorandum of Understanding for the management of the extended transboundary Drin Basin (of 2011 marks the start of collaboration in Drin Basin level (shared between Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Greece), after the Drin Dialogue that launched in 2009, in Podgorica, Montenegro. The ongoing negotiation processes include a decision on a permanent commission for transboundary freshwaters issue between Albania and Kosovo (it is not yet finalised. Due to these ongoing processes and the fact that data sharing and monitoring processes are yet to be fully established, the overall rating of the level of operationalization of international treaties is medium-high. 104 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 57. Variety of government institutions registered in FAO database The indicator was included following the proposal of Doeffinger et al. (2020) and supplemented with expert opinion. It was found unviable for the assessment as the FAO database did not provide the comprehensive overview on sector institutions as initially assumed. The institutional landscape was analytically assessed without having a specific indicator in this area. Indicator 68. Level of adequacy of water supply infrastructure. • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band Infrastructure is over- or under designed Outdated assets are inefficient and need more resources to be operated and infrastructure is not state of art. Many schemes or point water sources reached • Architecture/Infrastructure • Level of adequacy of lifespan Some of the existing infrastructure is in Water is always limited and there is a significant decline in water use due to migration water supply good shape and more need for use of water from the customers. infrastructure No potential to increase coverage without Maintenance system does not exist at all as maintenance is only for repair of the • LOW-MEDIUM extension of infrastructure emergency case and not regular maintenance. 105 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 69. Adequacy of water and sanitation design standards and guidelines and approval process • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band • Architecture/Infrastructure Standards and guidelines cover required areas Standards and procedures are not used in practice. Implementation is limited to standard • Adequacy of water and only partly typical designs. Schemes that are in big size but not for the small investment. The sanitation design authorities have no sufficient capacities for approval processes Approval process defined but not followed in standards and guidelines practice and approval process • MEDIUM-HIGH 106 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 70. Level of adequacy of irrigation infrastructure • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band From the potentially irrigated surface of about 360,000 ha, currently the irrigation infrastructure is available for about 250,000 ha mainly in the western lowlands, where farmers have access to water for irrigation. The needs for the future are: -Improvement the irrigation infrastructure in 250 000 ha, through the implementation of modern irrigation technologies for the better fulfillment of water needs -Increasing the irrigated surface with 110,000 ha by rehabilitation and modernization the existing irrigation infrastructure which is not functioning (this irrigation infrastructure is based mainly in mechanical lifting by pumping stations). The existing infrastructure is almost all built before 1990 and provides surface irrigation • Infrastructure is in good shape and fits with open channels. • Architecture/Infrastructure the current demand • Level of adequacy of The average age of irrigation infrastructure, varies from 60-40 years and through Irrigation Infrastructure • Accessible to majority of cultivated regions investments we are realizing the reconstruction/rehabilitation and modernization of this • MEDIUM infrastructure by implementing more efficient irrigation methods. In our country, the water needs for irrigation or the water deficit for irrigation is about 400-450 mm. Irrigation systems are designed with a hydro module value of about 0.9-1.2 liters/second/ha. Currently, we meet about 60-70% of the water needs for irrigation Coping with climate change will require: -Increasing the water distribution capacity of irrigation systems -Increasing the capacities of water sources for irrigation (building new reservoirs for irrigation) 107 Albania Water Security Outlook -using of modern irrigation technologies to save irrigation water from existing sources. 108 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 71. Irrigation infrastructure financing • Sub Dimension Range band description Assessment sheet description • Indicator • Range Band Irrigation systems are generally divided into two groups, in irrigation systems that cover an area of over 1000 ha and those under 1,000 ha, and in general, irrigation systems are considered small. The rehabilitated systems are in good technical condition, but being with open channels, Moderate investments with various levels of • Architecture/Infrastructure periodic operation and maintenance is very important. • Irrigation Infrastructure efficiency, largely subsidized with public funding financing Investments in irrigation infrastructure are made from the state budget through the Users have a moderate (up to 20%) contribution • MEDIUM Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and 61 municipalities, that are about 10 to the infrastructure costs million usd/year. After rehabilitation/reconstruction, operation and maintenance are the responsibility of the users of the irrigation schemes, which are Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and 61 municipalities. 109 Albania Water Security Outlook Indicator 72: Level of adequacy reservoir/hydropower infrastructure • Sub Range band description Assessment sheet description Dimension • Indicator • Range Band • Reservoir infrastructure achieves medium level A new Reservoir in Skavica is under construction. • Infrastructure of its maximum potential energy/storage capacity • Level of Dams medium aged, problems with sedimentation. adequacy of • Infrastructure is in middle of its lifespan reservoir and Different uses: Water supply, hydro energy, flood risk mitigation, fisheries, water transport, hydropower • Reliable and meets water demand and flood tourism, Photovoltaic plants infrastructure mitigation targets • MEDIUM • Medium environmental losses 110 Albania Water Security Outlook Annex III: International treaties signed by Albania Table A12: International treaties signed by Albania based on international database15 Date No. Document title Signatories signed Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, International Convention Finland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Concerning the Regime of 1921- 1 Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Navigable Waterways of 04-20 Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, International Concern Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia (Former) Agreement between the government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and the government of the People's Republic of Albania 1956- 2 concerning water economy Albania, Yugoslavia (Former) 12-05 questions, together with the statue of the Yugoslav-Albanian Water economic commission and with the protocol concerning fishing in frontier lakes and rivers. Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Italy, Venezuela, Uruguay, Czech Republic, Sweden, United Kingdom, Uganda, Jordan, Ireland, Germany, Macedonia, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Canada, Portugal, Finland, Malta, Albania, Namibia, Argentina, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Slovenia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Egypt, Chad, India, Iran, Algeria, Chile, France, Convention on wetlands of Estonia, Vietnam, Slovakia, Israel, South Africa, Suriname, Peru, Senegal, Malaysia, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Iceland, Japan, Denmark, international importance 1971- 3 Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America, Guinea, especially as waterfowl habitat 02-02 Turkey, Mauritania, Switzerland, New Zealand, Ecuador, Hungary, (Ramsar) 1971 and Protocol 1972 Yugoslavia (Former), Comoros, China, Norway, Honduras, Armenia, Pakistan, Netherlands, Romania, Paraguay, Gabon, Brazil, Austria, Australia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Bolivia, Niger, Panama, Spain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Tunisia, Mali, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Morocco, Belgium, Mexico, Nepal, Congo, Democratic Republic of (Kinshasa), Poland, Togo Albania, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, European Economic Community, Finland, France, Convention on environmental 1997- Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, 4 impact assessment in a 09-10 Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, transboundary context, Espoo Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America Agreement between the Government of the Hellenic 2003- 5 Albania, Greece Republic and the Government of 04-03 the Republic of Albania on the 15 International freshwater treaties (as of 2007) International Freshwater Treaties Database | Program in Water Conflict Management and Transformation | Oregon State University. Agreement between Albania and Montenegro (2018) additionally added. 111 Albania Water Security Outlook establishment of the permanent Greek-Albanian commission on transboundary freshwater issues Agreement between the council of ministers of the Republic of Albania and the Government of 2004- 9 the Repulic of Macedonia for the Albania, Macedonia 06-17 protection and sustainable development of Lake Ohrid and its watershed Agreement between Albania and 2018- 10 Albania, Montenegro Montenegro DCM 745 12-19 112 Albania Water Security Outlook Annex IV: Long list of actions to increase water security in Albania In bold: actions that were included in the MCA-scoring. Timeframe, implementation responsibility and costs were discussed and completed by the participants of the second workshop Main Topic Name of the action Short description Timeframe implementation Costs responsibility AMBU has a cadastre in place but it is largely incomplete. The information on water uses and users (discharges and abstractions) is scattered across different institutions ((National Environmental Agency, Institute of Public Health, Albanian Geological Institute, Institute for Geosciences, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Energy, and Infrastructure). Such information is also collected in different formats, which makes difficult for institutions to upload the data into the cadastre platform. Different actions are required to complete the cadastre and ensure its Complete and maintain the maintenance over time: (i) a coordination mechanism is required to provide assistance and Short/Medium AMBU High cadastre of water uses support to the different institutions to upload their data, (ii) funds need to be allocated to maintain the platform, since currently the data is stored in a central server managed by AKSHI, but maintenance is limited, and (iii) development of technical capacities to collect data (including metering), monitoring and enforcement of legal obligations. Having a complete and up to date cadastre of water uses and users is also a necessary step to increase the revenues from water Water permitting and ensure basin wide planning. Resources The available River Basin Management Plans acknowledge the existence of important Management monitoring gaps overall, and in particular with regards to the requirements of the WFD to assess the status of surface and groundwater bodies. Investments on this front should be prioritized in the set up of stations, data management, analysis and reporting. Key areas of intervention: (i) improve technical capacities for monitoring ecological status, starting with macroinvertebrates. Improve the monitoring of Currently, only chlorophyll is monitored since there is a shortage on sampling but also lab surface, groundwater and Medium AMBU, NEA High capacities to do ecological analysis, coastal water bodies (ii) improve capacities to monitor chemical status, since currently only nutrients and physical parameters are monitored. Priority substances are insufficiently monitored since equipment is either old and not functioning or not in place. (iii) NEA to establish a long-term contract with the Geological survey to ensure the monitoring of water quantity. The Geological survey is in charge of groundwater monitoring, but does the monitoring on a contract-basis. 113 Albania Water Security Outlook Development of the RBMPs of Among the 7 RBMPs that Albania needs to develop and implement, priority actions will include: Vjosa and Shkumbini and (iii) Development of Vjosa and Shkumbini before the end of the current planning cycle revision of the Drini Buna and (2027) Semani’s to ensure (iv) Revision of Drini Buna, Semani to ensure compliance with the WFD. Current plans miss compliance with the WFD. basic requirements (e.g. delineation and characterization of WBs). This revision should Medium AMBU High Develop the financial also be accomplished with the current planning cycle strategies to ensure the (v) Develop a financial plan to ensure the implementation of the PoMs of all 7 plans, starting implementation of the POMs with Ishem, Erzeni, and Mati. These three plans are expected to be adopted soon by the of all 7 RBMPs council of ministries. Legal reforms to ensure the compliance with the EU acquis are underway, especially for WFD. A draft has been put forward but pending of approval from the government. For the sister directives such as the Flood Directive (FD), Nitrates Directive (ND), Groundwater Directive Prepare the Advance the implementation (GWD) and the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) transposition is in progress strategy: of EU water directives, and the and will go through the council minister decisions. Short/ AMBU Low development of the DSIP for Medium all sister directives In addition to the legal transpositions, DSIP (Directive-Specific Implementation Plans) for the Implementation: implementation of these Directives will have to be developed, evaluated and prioritized based High on financial needs for investments and their distribution of the costs over time. DSIP are now under development of DWD and UWWTD, but will be required for all the other sister directives. There is legal basis for the establishment of water tariffs but it is not enforced currently. Only Review and further develop 50% of the water supply and sanitation utilities are paying their fee for abstractions and the tariffing system for water discharges, whereas irrigation users do not pay at all. Hydropower is the only user that is uses, based on cost recovery currently paying their fee. These gaps are largely due to the fact that the water cadastre is Medium AMBU Low and polluter pays principle of incomplete and there is limited information available to enforce payments. EU WFD In addition to the collection of water fees, a possible legal reform that allows AMBU to earmark water-related taxes and fees/water use could also contribute to ensure its financial sustainability AMBU oversees the implementation of the Programme of Measures (PoM); but the measures Institutional reform to increase and financing are implemented by different line ministries and institutions following a sectoral Ministry of the effectiveness of WRM and approach. Instead, the investments should be allocated by sectors and channelled through Long Finances and reduce costs AMBU to increase the effectiveness and reduce the costs (legal reform of responsibilities Economy required). Given the importance of groundwater for drinking water supply, it becomes critical to allocate Implement the Drinking Water resources to monitor GW bodies, identify and properly manage water protection zones and Medium AMBU Directive requirements (DWD) sanitary areas. Increase capacities and create One of the main future issues at stake under the IWRM Strategy (and WFD) is improving the decision-making models to decision making of AMBU and the River Basin Councils (seven) on WRM (possibly also by Short AMBU Medium support AMBU and River Basin introducing autonomy in decision-making and financing of measures regarding water resources Councils, based on the water management issues to the River Basin Councils). 114 Albania Water Security Outlook priorities and the NEXUS approach principles. In addition, creating DSSs for different Basins and their linkages with achieving the environmental objectives and keeping balance with economic development will support and improve WRM, both at the level of AMBU and of the River Basin Councils. Large investments are needed to improve the coverage of the sewerage service and the treatment of polluted water and to be aligned with EU acquis and the relevant directives (DWD, Close the investment gap of UWWTD). the National WSS Sector Medium MIE-AKUM-ERRU High The investment needs according to the National WSS Sector Strategy 2023-2030 are around Strategy 1.4 billion EUR. But there is a financing gap of 10% (135 Mio EUR). Develop and implement a financing plan to close or reduce the financing gap. To operate and maintain existing and new water supply and wastewater systems, more qualified Improve Capacity staff and more capacities are needed. Attracting young experts and retention of experienced Development and Human staff (“career plan�) needs to be systematically improved. Implementation of structured training Short- MIE-AKUM Medium Resource Plan at utility level and certification program need to be rolled up. Currently, there is a low absorption of available Medium and O&M level funds due to lack of capacity. At the same time high total personnel costs due to overstaffing, but key staff are not adequately motivated and tend to leave if possible (brain drain). Implement the aggregation process and support the new regional utilities to become financially Strengthen utilities to improve sustainable – towards full cost recovery but also affordable tariffs are needed. This should service and financial include improvements of services and the implementation of a pro-poor approach, which is Water Supply sustainability including the already foreseen in the regulation approach. Increase awareness of the public to pay for WSS Short- AKUM-ERRU Medium services and in particular for wastewater services. Medium and Sanitation successful implementation of utility aggregation Utilities should gradually get into position to access commercial loans to free sector financing for other initiatives. NRW is extraordinarily high (estimation 67% consisting of administrative losses and technical Reactivation of existing losses (assumable 60% technical and 40% administrative)) A focused initiative is needed to strategies and action plans to address short term action plan (existing) addressing system wide metering (source, reservoirs, Short- reduce Non-Revenue Water DMAs and end customers) and detecting and eliminating illegal connections etc. AKUM-ERRU Medium-High Medium (NRW) and to increase energy efficiency of WSS systems Other measures to increase energy efficiency of the WSS systems (e.g. preparation and implementation of energy audits and energy efficiency measures. Proper Asset Management is crucial and needed for all regional water utilities. Regional Water Utility Business Plans that include measurable targets and proper Capital Investment Planning MIE-AKUM - 15 Improvement of infrastructure should be in line with Government targets and financing strategies. Demographic changes Medium Regional Water Low planning and management should be considered during the process of design review needed to ensure to adequate sizing Utility Companies of systems/schemes. 115 Albania Water Security Outlook While rural water and sanitation access levels for piped water and flush toilets are higher than the ECA regional averages - some communities have no services at all. Minority populations have very limited access to water and sanitation facilities. A plan to increase the coverage is needed / revision of current plans to adequately include and based on this ensure Improvement of service implementation. ERRU - 15 provision for all including Long Regional Water High marginalized groups (SDG 6.1 6.1 By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for Utility Companies and 6.2) all. 6.2 By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations Better data exchange between the institutions is needed as well as the integration of existing Improvement of data collection data into the different systems. Accuracy of data generated and reports is currently insufficient and data quality / data (e.g. lack of meters, estimations instead of calculation of KPIs). Discussion of data exchange Medium Medium integration policy is needed (workshop could be a starting point). To ensure acceptable drinking water quality, the monitoring (sampling and analysing according to EU DWD) should be improved. In order to reduce dam failure risk, and based on revising national standards, this action aims at improving dam safety consistent with the ICOLD standards for existing dams. For this, installing dam safety monitoring systems is crucial. An important next step will be rehabilitating/modernizing the existing network of hundreds of dams built some five decades ago Improve dam safety and to serve multiple functions including flood protection, water storage and making them more MIE/ALBCOLD sustainable operation in line environmentally friendly (environmental flow etc.) in line with upcoming WFD requirements. In Short- with international addition, to economically support dams’ operation and maintenance, there is a possibility to add Medium Ministry of Medium-High standards/certification new functions with the potential to generate revenue. These functions can include energy Agriculture generation based on floating solar panels and development of reservoir-based touristic attractions. Economic Uses For all the above, capacities have to be improved, but also investments done. and Risks Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the early 1990s, reforms have segregated land holdings into small (family-size) parcels. The current state reduces the farm profitability, makes irrigation services provision challenging, and disincentivizes local and foreign investors. The government should support farmland consolidation or cooperation among farmers, so Support the shift towards profitability increases to a sufficient level. At the same time, efficiency in smaller agricultural Ministry of more efficient, sustainable enterprises should be increased (through cap. building, supporting necessary investments etc.), Medium-Long Agriculture, High agricultural farms, including also supporting the shift to higher added-value, organic farming. WUAs need to be strengthened, Municipalities irrigation modernisation esp. regarding irrigation farming operation and maintenance of related infrastructure (which currently remains with the municipalities). Albania’s current irrigation system mainly relies on expensive and inefficient aged infrastructure (e.g., open canal conveyance, lift-pumping). Modernizing existing irrigation systems requires 116 Albania Water Security Outlook reducing water losses during the conveyance and irrigation stages (e.g., by switching to drip irrigation), and by reducing the operational costs. Initial estimates indicate that around 200,000 hectares requires irrigation infrastructure rehabilitation or replacement. Furthermore, system- wide measures are required for increasing the sustainability of the existing irrigation system by improving the financial management and the sustainable O&M of irrigation systems. Expanding irrigation systems should be able to secure irrigation water availability during the dry season, by making sure there is a sufficient water storage capacity. This needs to consider the availability of water (under climate change) as well as scenarios regarding the future demand for irrigation water. Based on the implementation of the Floods Directive (and through the development of FRMPs), this action includes the establishment of early warning systems, the rehabilitation and Ministry of Further improve flood modernization of all flood protection infrastructure that has deteriorated and at imminent risk of Agriculture. protection in line with the EU- failure, and construction of additional flood protection infrastructure, focusing on flood-prone Long High AMBU, Floods Directive areas and on the use of Nature Based Solutions (NBS). This needs to be based on an analysis Municipalities and subsequent improvement of the institutional setup (responsibilities, financing etc.) regarding flood management (Ministry of Agriculture, AMBU etc.). A Strategy regarding disaster management is currently under development. Such an effective Design a national disaster national disaster management plan needs to reflect and prioritise water-related disasters and AKMC (National management plan and water-borne diseases in order to mitigate future damages from water-related disasters; the plan Short Civil Protection Low implement it (also at should be based on appropriate risk assessments and also include ways to mitigate also drought Agency) municipal level) risks, overall considering climate change effects. This plan needs to be coordinated e.g., with the development of Flood Risk Management Plans according to the FD. 117 Albania Water Security Outlook Annex V: Scores given to different actions - result of the workshop Table A13: Qualitative ranking of the actions based on low (red), medium (yellow) and high (green) using the multi-criteria approach (ranking done by the stakeholders during WS II (6 February 2023) The qualitative scores given (see details in table A14 below) in the first step of the multi-criteria approach (ranking done by the stakeholders during WS II (6 February 2023) are color-coded: low (red), medium (yellow) and high (green), and were grouped into three groups, based on the weighted scores given by the participants. In addition, the following color coding was used for actions: Green- Water Resource Management actions; Yellow – Water Supply and Sanitation actions; Brown – actions related to economic uses and risks EFFECTIVE- JUSTICE & SIDE PRIORITY GROUP ACTION ACCEPTANCE FEASIBILITY FLEXIBILITY URGENCY NESS ETHICS EFFECTS Improve Capacity � � � � � � � Development/Human Resource Plan at utility + O&M level � � � � � � � Improve monitoring of water bodies � � � � � � � Improve Dam safety and GROUP 1 sustainable operation Support shift to more � � � � � � � efficient, sustainable agricultural farms, including irrigation modernisation Design and implement a national disaster management plan � � � � � � � Development/Revision of � � � � � � � RBMPs; Financial strategy GROUP 2 for the implementation of the POMs 118 Albania Water Security Outlook EFFECTIVE- JUSTICE & SIDE PRIORITY GROUP ACTION ACCEPTANCE FEASIBILITY FLEXIBILITY URGENCY NESS ETHICS EFFECTS � � � � � � � Improve infrastructure planning + management Strengthen utilities to improve service + financial sustainability including successful utility � � � � � � � aggregation Advance implementation of � � � � � � � EU water directives – development of DSIP for all sister Directives Reactivate strategies/ action plans to reduce Non- Revenue Water + to increase energy efficiency of � � � � � � � WSS systems � � � � � � � Complete/maintain the register of water uses Further improve flood protection in line with the EU-Floods Directive � � � � � � � GROUP 3 Review + further develop the tariffing system for water uses � � � � � � � Close investment gap of the National WSS Sector Strategy � � � � � � � 119 Albania Water Security Outlook Table A14: Quantitative ranking of the actions obtained from the workshop of multi-criteria action planning in Albania (at criterion level) Scores given by the participants (weighted) The following color coding was used for actions: Green - Water Resource Management actions; Yellow - Water Supply and Sanitation actions; Brown - actions related to economic uses and risks OVERALL SCORING OF EFFECTIVE- JUSTICE & SIDE ACCEPTANCE FEASIBILITY FLEXIBILITY URGENCY CRITERIA NESS ETHICS EFFECTS PRIORITY GROUP ACTION WEIGHTED (MAX: 4) (MAX: 7) (MAX: 4) (MAX: 5) (AVERAGE) (MAX: 7) (MAX: 5) (MAX: 5) (MAX: 5,28) Improve Capacity Development/Human Resource Plan at utility + 6,72 2,96 3,6 4,34 3,12 4,9 5 4,38 O&M level Improve monitoring of water bodies 6,3 2,4 3,8 4,06 3,04 4,3 4,6 4,07 Improve Dam safety and sustainable operation 6,72 3,12 3,4 4,06 2 2,9 4,3 3,79 GROUP 1 Support shift to more efficient, sustainable agricultural farms, 5,6 2,96 3,5 4,2 2,72 3,6 3,7 3,75 including irrigation modernisation Design and implement a national disaster 5,88 2,88 4,2 4,9 2,24 3,4 2,7 3,74 management plan Development/Revision of RBMPs; Financial strategy for the implementation of 5,04 2,8 3,3 3,64 2,4 4,2 3,6 3,57 the POMs 120 Albania Water Security Outlook Improve infrastructure planning + management 5,18 3,04 2,7 4,48 2,4 3,3 3,8 3,56 Strengthen utilities to improve service + financial GROUP 2 sustainability including 5,6 2,96 2,8 5,04 2,24 2,6 3,6 3,55 successful utility aggregation Advance implementation of EU water directives - development of DSIP for all 4,5 2,48 3,1 3,92 2,16 3,6 3,9 3,54 sister Directives Reactivate strategies/ action plans to reduce Non- Revenue Water + to 5,74 3,04 2,9 4,2 2,08 3,3 3,4 3,52 increase energy efficiency of WSS systems Complete/maintain the register of water uses 5,32 2,48 3,6 3,22 2,32 3,2 4,3 3,49 Further improve flood protection in line with the 4,9 2,88 3,8 3,5 2,16 3,1 4 3,48 EU-Floods Directive GROUP 3 Review + further develop the tariffing system for 5,6 2,16 2,9 3,08 2,16 3,4 3,6 3,27 water uses Close investment gap of the National WSS Sector 5,32 2,48 2,4 3,36 2,32 3,4 3,6 3,27 Strategy 121