urbanization vicinity; some are associated with activity in the Allegheny River basins; still others are
common to the predominantly rural counties.
Large differences exist among the sources of problems, their potential effects on Albanian public
health and environmental quality, and their likely solutions.
Further, resolution of water quality issues is affected by other regional issues such as transportation,
land use, and governance of the metropolitan area.
Small hydro is gaining ground across the Balkans. The small (municipal) Albanian investor is looking
for medium-size hydro and dam companies who know how to tap special funds. This has been
traditionally the arena of big players such as Siemens or Alstom with specific staff to handle the World
Bank, the European Investment Bank and the EBRD. The Balkans show small funding is happening.
Brussels and USAID also have small technical funds in the agricultural sector which can mesh nicely
with reservoir building for irrigation and domestic water projects. American banks are also very active in
Albania.
The extensive use of reservoirs for fish production as part of food security is expanding exponentially.
There is a market for expertise on protecting big volumes of fish at the turbines, as well as fish ladders
and other bypass schemes. Reservoir stocks for the market attract EU funding and may be worth tens of
millions of Euros. Food ministers want clean river basin waters reaching the sea which will not damage
high value shellfish beds and fish breeding grounds.
The significance of this is reflected in tensions between Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and Albania over their
coastal stocks. One side of the Adriatic is only about 148km from the other, so the potential for pollution
from the land is very high. In 1993 fertilizer land runoff coated 600km of the Yugoslav to Italian coastline
with toxic algae. This cost several billion Euros in today’s money through lost fish and collapsed tourism.
The existing pattern of water supply and water quality services in the region is highly fragmented, with
more than 1,000 providers operating in the multicounty region area, like many other metro areas in the
United States, large-special purpose authorities such as the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority
(ALCOSAN) can achieve substantial economies of scale through joint management agencies.
Although private organizations may not have direct voting power in what mix of organizations is
chosen to implement the plan, they could very well influence how the public and its elected and appointed
representatives make these choices. Decentralization has given local governments the discretion and
scope they need to take a lead role in responding to the challenges of economic downturn, degradation of
the urban environment, and social hardship. They institute bold initiatives and innovative practices.
Western European nations have put in place sophisticated frameworks to provide local governments with
technical and financial assistance. The European Union supplements these national programs with
coordinated assistance aimed at promoting economic development, assisting distressed localities and
fostering social inclusion. Infrastructure is an important component of these programs.
In strong local government leadership and active community participation were key to implementing
an integrated plan involving urban planning, infrastructure, and economic development. Despite its
location in an industrialized province Jerez’s economy relies on wine production which, in recent years
has been declining. Weak community participation, inadequate infrastructure, poor accessibility to
regional resources and an unskilled labor force compounded the effects of massive job cuts in the wine
industry. To address these problems, Jerez launched a new strategy for economic recovery in 1993,
shifting the emphasis from seeking to attract investments from sources outside the municipality to
fostering local integrated development.
The successes are seven key factors:
• A dynamic local government leadership;
• A coherent strategy acted upon with determination;
• A healthy climate of cooperation with business;
• Local government’s investment initiatives to jumpstart the stagnant economy;
• Creative use EU funds to implement local policy;