On October 22nd 2020, in the hall of the Municipal Council of Malësi e Madhe a press conference to conclude the cross-border project Green Lands was held. The project with a duration of 30 months was implemented in the municipalities of Berane (Montenegro) and Malësia e Madhe (Albania), in partnership between the Municipality of Berane and Caritas Montenegro for the Montenegrin side and VIS Albania and the Municipality of Malësia e Madhe for the Albanian side. The project aimed at environmental protection in the target area, capacity building of employees in public institutions and the establishment of an efficient and integrated waste collection system.
In her greeting speech, Lisjana Çukaj, the representative of the Municipality of Malësi e Madhe, said that this project was very efficient and that the awareness-raising in terms of waste separation started for the first time in the Municipality of Malësia e Madhe. Moreover, she added that the containers for separate waste collection were put in place through 8 ecological (green) islands and 58 containers 1100 liters in the territory. She stated that Malësi e Madhe Municipality is already in line with government priorities and the project also created an opportunity to work in synergy with the community and schools.
The same activities and procurement procedure were done in Montenegro in the Municipality of Berane. Anna Carboni, representative of VIS Albania said that proper functioning of the separate waste collection system requires a lot of commitment from all actors involved and that after this project, proper and efficient management for waste management in Malësia e Madhe is in place. VIS has insisted on cooperating with institutions for waste separation in Malësi e Madhe, stating that the development of tourism in this area required commitment of citizens for environmental protection, not just seen as a request to institutions, but also a commitment of the families themselves in their communities.
In her speech Sonila Kocli, coordinator of the project Green Lands, presented the results that the project achieved in both sides of the border. She explained that due to the situation of COVID 19 pandemic the partners from Montenegro were prevented to attend the closing event. Moreover, she said that the commitment of the communities and the municipality of Malësi e Madhe in the relevant sectors needs to continue with waste management and their separation at source, giving importance to education and awareness of the population regarding the benefits of recycling, which brings not only a positive environmental impact on human health, but also economic benefits.
The environmental engineer in the Public Services Sector of the Municipality of Malësi e Madhe, Kledis Kukaj, said that waste management is a priority in this municipality and that it is among the first to implement waste separation in two streams (wet and dry) through the involvement of 1000 families in Malësi e Madhe, with the aim of spreading it further in the territory, to gradually move towards the two-basket system, as foreseen in the Waste Management Strategy. It was concluded that through this project the environmental protection in the target area is enhanced and that significant progress is made in both municipalities related to the efficient and integrated waste collection system.
