Objective:

To support the Albanian government in achieving its midterm objective to rehabilitate polluted areas to meet basic safety standards through (a) intervention in “hot spot” areas and (b) elimination of toxic materials.

Description of project activities:

Project components will include:·Selecting “hot spot” sites through a consultative process and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for each “hot spot”;·Developing and submitting the action plan for remediation works and other interventions to the Steering Committee for approval;·Starting to clean up activities by a specialized entity or entities that are selected through a competitive bidding process;· Carrying out a periodic quality control of remediation work by specialized national institution(s);·Establishing a network of local communities;·Organizing training courses, seminars, workshops and an in-country study tour for local stakeholders for ensuring the application of integrated measures and implementing new management policies in cleaned up locations; Organizing an extensive media and awareness raising campaign by local civil society; Preparing/distributing a booklet/guidebook on managing environmental hotspots.

Outputs:

The expected outputs for this project include: Clean up of environmental hotspots that have been contaminated by pesticides and other chemicals, and Strengthened local community capacity for environmental governance through participation and informed decision-making.

Beneficiaries: Local communities

Partnerships:

The project will collaborate closely with other donor and government interventions involved in environmental hotspots clean up.EU CARDS 2002 program has provided 600,000 Euro in technical assistance to the project, “Feasibility Study and detailed design for a hazardous waste landfill”. Lessons and experiences from the Porto Romano Hot Spot Clean-up component of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management and clean up program will be used extensively for implementing this project.The project will also have a close collaboration with the National Agency for Environment and Forestry, the Public Health Institute and the Plant Protection Research Institute during the implementation of the clean up program.

Regions covered: Central Region of Albania