The "Clean and Sustainable Environment for a Blue Sea" project, which is being supported by the World Bank with a Dollar 80 million loan, is expected to become effective in November of this year.

At least this is how the Bank assessed it in a recent document that analyzes the progress of the project that was expected to start earlier.

The reason for the delay seems to be the deadlines that must be respected regarding the ratification procedures as well as the finding of the necessary staff who will manage it.

"The implementation of the project has not yet started due to pending effectiveness. After the expression of interest by the client (in this case, it is the Albanian government) to extend the effective date, the Bank has approved such a decision and has set November 13, 2024, as the new effective date. This additional time is expected to enable the achievement of all conditions of effectiveness (including the ratification of the loan, the employment of the project management team and the project coordination unit, and the finalization of the operational manual of the project), after which it will start implementation," said the document.

The project rating from the last review has been lowered from Satisfactory to Moderately Satisfactory.

The project "Clean and Sustainable Environment for a Blue Sea" envisages three components where the first one promotes an integrated and circular approach to the protection of the water environment and has a fund of Dollar 13.8 million. The second one aimed at reducing pollution in the Vjosa River water has the largest share of Dollar 62 million and the third is project management, evaluation, and monitoring with a fund of Dollar 4.1 million.

"This project will clean the pollution of the Vjosa River and the coastline of Vlora through investments in the sewage system and solid waste. The local economies along the picturesque river Vjosa as well as the ecosystems of the Adriatic and Ionian seas will benefit from the cleaning of the river water," the World Bank would underline shortly before the final approval by the board of the project in question.