Investments in the "Drainage and Irrigation Infrastructure" program reached at the end of April a total fund of Lek 557 million or about Euro 5.7 million.

The said program of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has a total of Lek 2.55 billion or about Euro 25 million programmed for this year, which must be realized by the end of 2024 and which focuses on investments in drainage and irrigation of agricultural lands.

"Realization of expenditures for the first four months of 2024, for this program, which represents 26.77% of the total actual budget of this ministry," the document states.

But what are the investments that have been made for this year according to the budget monitoring report?

The Ministry underlines that with the operating expenses, the works continue, focused mainly on the maintenance of the irrigation infrastructure facilities, on the functioning of the main irrigation canals for this year's irrigation season (especially the main Peqin-Kavaja irrigation canals, which cover the municipalities of Peqin with irrigation, Rrogozhina and Kavaja, the ‘Naun Panxhi’ and Polis-Tudan canals, which cover the Elbasan municipality with irrigation, as well as water intake works for several main irrigation canals under the administration of the Ministry of Education and Culture, such as the Mat-Lezhë, Mat-Kurbin canals in Lezha and Kurbin, Vjosa -Levan-Fier, in Fier; irrigation branches with the Thana reservoir in Lushnje, etc.).

"Also, during this period, work began on cleaning the main drainage canals and keeping 27 water pumps in full operation, which drain about 70,000 ha in the western lowlands," the report says.

The same report clarifies that about projects with investments in irrigation and drainage infrastructure, flood protection works, and hydropower, financed with the 2024 budget, there are a total of 78 projects, of which: continuing from 2023 at least 23 projects, new 55 projects. Of the latter, 23 projects and 27 municipal projects belong to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Although in total the financial realization of investments is about 21%, we can say that currently, the realization of physical works in the ongoing facilities is about 93%, for which there is the possibility of advancing financing for some of these facilities, which reach the value about Lek 209 million," says the report.