Clean-up operation starts

As the idea of the energy park was being sold to investors at the Crans Montana Forum, the World Bank said it had started the clean-up project of Porto Romano from pollution caused by a former lindane factory nearby.
The clean up of Porto Romano is a component of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Clean-up Project that started in November 2005.
The Porto Romano component aims to remediate and rehabilitate the contaminated site of the former factory by demolition and excavation of the polluted materials and safe disposal in a confined disposal facility.
In 2003, the United Nations Environment Program commissioned an environmental assessment which identified five priority environmental hot spots for clean-up in Albania. The former chemical plant in Porto Romano, Durres was ranked the first because of the grave risks the sites posed to human health, groundwater, and marine habitats. The study recommended urgent action and called upon the international community to immediately provide emergency assistance to these priority areas.
In May 2006 the Government of the Netherlands provided 1 million euro parallel funding for the repackaging, transport and safe disposal of the chemical waste stored in Bishti i Palles storage facility. The repackaged waste was incinerated in a specialized facility in Germany.
The works are expected to finish early 2011 and the expected benefits will be: (to avoid direct contact with the contaminated soil and waste and thereby reducing the public health risk; reduction of long term environment and health risks related to contaminated groundwater; and reduction of risks associated with surface water runoff.
In 2004, Albania’s government requested World Bank support for the remediation of the Porto Romano site.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands Government expressed its interest in supporting the clean-up. A Japanese PHRD grant of 250,000 dollars financed the preparation of the feasibility study for the remediation. Then later in 2004, the bank agreed to combine the two separate projects for integrated coastal zone management and the clean-up of Porto Romano into one operation − the Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Clean-Up Project.
The Netherlands government committed 5 million dollars for this clean-up and later in 2006 a parallel 1 million euros for repackaging and safe disposal of the chemical waste stored in Bishti i Pall쳠to a specialized facility in Germany.