RIVER CHERAVA WATERSHED:
STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT REPORT

Oliver Avramoski, ALLCOOP, Macedonia

Waste management

The management of municipal waste is essential to sustainable development, but it cannot be considered in isolation from the overall political and economic conditions of the transition period. Currently, solid waste collection and disposal operations present many serious environmental, public health and social problems and risks. On the Albanian side of the watershed the villages are not covered by any municipal waste management service - there are no enterprises to collect, transport and dispose of municipal waste. Waste is dumped on any available site in the villages or nearby. Waste is also burned, producing smoke containing toxic substances (dioxins, furans). In addition, the municipal waste from the city of Pogradec is deposited in a landfill partly lying in the watershed.  The landfill has neither a drainage system nor a waterproof layer to prevent leaching and percolation into the groundwater. There are no data on the quality of surface watercourses and groundwater in the vicinity of the site.

For several years the solid waste from Ljubanista and tourist facilities on the Macedonian part of the watershed has been regularly collected by the Public Communal Enterprise Komunalec from Ohrid. This has reduced illegal dumping in the area to a large extent though not entirely and quite a large quantity of solid waste still remains on the illegal landfill near the Cherava River. Also, the collection and deposition of the construction debris has not been addressed.

The disposal of municipal waste in the Cherava River watershed requires immediate action. However, waste management requires resources for infrastructure, operations, maintenance, research and development, and these resources have been lacking or are currently insufficient. Currently there are no data on the quantity and composition of waste in the area. There are no facilities for sorting, processing or recycling municipal waste in the watershed or in the wider region-the Lake Ohrid watershed. In addition, there is a lack of public information on municipal waste disposal, in particular with regard to sorting and recycling.

The collection and disposal of the solid waste is a major problem throught the watershed

Land use and trends

Most of construction on the Albanian side has taken place illegally. People decide to build on their own property without the necessary infrastructure and without the benefit of master plans or permits. Lack of infrastructure in sewage, drinking water supply, electricity and garbage collection is often due to the illegal nature of urban settlements. Sub-optimal land use management in the watershed has led to deforestation and inefficient and destructive agriculture. As a result of destructive rural development there is a strong rural/urban drift and a plethora of environmental and socio-economic problems.

The illegal construction in the plain of Ljubanista threatens the last remnants of wetlands along the  southern coast of Lake Ohrid

On the Macedonian side the land use planning has been more efficient in the past, mainly because of the establishment of the National Park Galicica. However, changes in the economic structure, the increasing roles of the private sector and communities, decentralization and the new role of local governments, are creating new challenges for land-use planning. Currently there is a lack of co-ordination between various agencies concerned with economic and physical planning. Poor enforcement measures and lack of effective monitoring pose serious threats to the protection of the conservation area on the Macedonian side of the watershed.