Dear participants,

My name is Maxhid Cungu. I am the president of the region of Shkodra, Albania
First of all I would like to thank the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions for organizing the workshop related to one of the most important sectors of the services provided by local government. Regional Councils in Albania are responsible for the preparation of waste management plans in the region
Shkoder Region is situated in the northern part of Albania with a territory of 3,562 km².  The population is 341000 inhabitants
Shkoder region comprises 33 local government units. Of these are 5 municipalities and 28 communes with a total number of 272 villages
the total amount of waste produced by the Shkodra region is about 165 tons per day or about 60,000 tons per year.

Waste management is financed by the income generated from service charges/tariff, other local incomes as well as from unconditioned transfer delivered by the central government. In order to achieve a sustainable, efficient, and above all an affordable service for the citizens, the generated revenue from service tariffs should bear the burden for financing the service, by ensuring full coverage of operational and maintenance costs.
The current system of waste collection points in the entire Municipalities of Shkoder region is standardised. Waste containers have wheels and are made out of metal. They have a capacity of 1100 litres, and are placed along the main street axes of the cities. There are common containers both for the citizens and private businesses. Their positioning is not defined by any provided standard, neither is related to the distance from the consumer, and nor to the distance in between collection points in view of population density. As result of irregular distribution and lack of collection points, especially for solid and voluminous waste, illegal and unauthorised dumping places have been created and piles of trash have grown nearby collection points. This situation creates unpleasant urban view and odours and is associated with considerable additional costs for the collection.
The current municipal waste collection services, offered in the municipalities and communes of Shkoder Region do not include the segregated collection of urban waste s disposed by inhabitants, businesses and institutions.
In the commune of Bushat already exists a regional land field designed in accordance with the EU landfill directive, investment conducted by the Albanian government amounting to 4.2 million euros. Recent month the city of Shkodra as the biggest producer of waste in the region (69%)  began to deposit its waste in this landfill
Therefore, LGUs are facing huge challenges not only to manage their own waste properly and in accordance with sanitary norms, optimised resources, and with existing infrastructure (Bushati Landfill), but also to close down and remediate all the dumping sites emplaced on their territories.

A month ago Regional Council of Shkodra approved waste management plan
The Regional Waste Management Planning for Shkoder Region is based entirely on the National Strategy for Waste Management. Main goal of this regional plan is to create a fovourauble environment for development of an integrated waste management system in accordance with the commitments made for establishment of a national integrated system, according to which by 2025 more than half of produced waste will be recycled and compostated, less than one third of the waste will safely be buried in landfills and the remaining will be used for energy production.
I am confident that this workshop will be very useful in increasing the capacity of local and regional governments involved in this activity