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| Lana River in Tiarna |
All this will be possible thanks to the financial contract concluded between the Council of Ministers and the European Investment Bank (EIB), with the financing of almost 13 million euros.
As required by the approved agreement, the project will be implemented within three years and 50% of it will be covered by the state budget approved by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy and 50% by the budget of the Municipality of Tirana.
A project that was born in 2018 and subjected to the approval of the EIB in July 2019.
In July 2019, during the Western Balkans Summit, the EIB (European Investment Bank) signed its first regeneration project in this area, also including the project on the Lana River that flows through the Albanian capital, Tirana. A project designed to offer flood protection, fluidity of public transport and resilience to climate change for the 65,000 citizens of the capital who live nearby. A part of the investment comes from the Economic Resilience Initiative (ERI). EIB President Hoyer said: "Projects like this support cities that are the engines of Western Balkan economies and act as catalysts for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship across the region."
The Lana River is a small stream that crosses the city of Tirana, and which had disappeared from the sight of visitors due to illegal buildings nearby until the first massive demolition works has been started in 2000.
Lana is a small river, a branch of the Tirana River, which runs through the city from east to west. It originates in the western part of Priska; it is 29 km long, the surface of the basin is 67 km². At the entrance to the city, Lana follows its path and then joins the Tirana river in the north-east of Berxulla, flowing to the Ishmi river.
According to a study conducted by the Institute of Environmental Policy, in the waters of the Tirana River, the values of nitrite contained in it are 4 to 32 times higher than the values of the EU Directive on the protection of fish, while the values of coliform bacteria found in feces are 13 times higher than EU standards. The destruction of the ecosystem of the Tirana river has been further aggravated by the discharges of the solid waste directly into the river, which has influenced the shrinkage, destroying the river bed, and in return has become a simple sewer channel. Filled with solid waste have been used for various illegal constructions, thus blocking the roads leading to it and damaging the bed of the river. Due to the pollution, the river's biodiversity has decreased dramatically, with the death of all kinds of fishes and other forms of aquatic life.