Challenges of Waste Management in the South East Albania, Korça Region

Waste management process is the collection, transportation and processing of waste materials. Generally waste management is done by local government institutions and it needs cooperation between these institutions and the entire population. Waste management is a challenge for local governments due to increasing amount of waste, lack of the budget because of the lower taxes collected from the local inhabitants for the service of waste management, and lack of cooperation with the population. People are not yet aware of the damage they cause to the environment, to their quality of life and to the next generations. The aim of this paper is to analyze the current situation of waste management in the south east of Albania in the Korça region. This region has 33 local government units (municipalities and communes) of which 28 have jointly established a company called Korça Regional Waste Management (KRWM). This cooperation between local governments is the first example of its kind in Albania. The financial aid for this cooperation which includes the collection of waste, transportation to the landfill, waste processing and building the landfill is financed by the KreditanstaltfürWiederaufbau (KfW) bank in Germany. As a methodology this paper will analyze the primary data taken from this corporation. The results of the questionnaire used by this corporation will demonstrate the waste management methods done by each of these municipalities and communes until now and what are their expectations for the future work need to be done by KRWM. Furthermore, an interview with the administrator of this company is also planned.As a first successful pilot project in Korça region, this new way of cooperation between local governments should also be followed by the other regions of Albania. Keywords: Waste management, Korca Region, KRWM, Albania, Kf