Issues of water management in Albania in light of climate change

241 Pages·2017·3.74 MB·English

Rama, Klodjan
Research Report
Too much but not enough: Issues of water
management in Albania in light of climate change
Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, No. 84
Provided in Cooperation with:
Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Halle (Saale)
Suggested Citation: Rama, Klodjan (2016) : Too much but not enough: Issues of water
management in Albania in light of climate change, Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector
in Transition Economies, No. 84, ISBN 978-3-95992-034-6, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural
Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Halle (Saale),
https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:3:2-69165
This Version is available at:
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/156486
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ISSN 1436-221X ia Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development
in Transition Economies
ISBN 978-3-95992-034-6
ISSN 1436-221X
ISBN 978-3-95992-034-6 84

Too much but not enough:
Issues of water management in Albania in light of climate change
Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector
in Transition Economies
Edited by
Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development
in Transition Economies
IAMO
Volume 84
Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector
in Transition Economies
Too much but not enough: Issues of water
Edited by
Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development
management in Albania in light of climate change
in Transition Economies
IAMO
Volume 84
by
Klodjan Rama
IAMO
2016
Bibliografische Information Der Deutschen Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen
Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über
http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar.
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists the publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available in the internet at: http://dnb.ddb.de.
This thesis was accepted as a doctoral dissertation in fulfillment of the require-
ments for the degree "doctor agriculturarum" by the Faculty of Natural Sciences III
at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg on 29.03.2016.
Date of oral examination: 20.06.2016
Supervisor and Reviewer: Prof. Dr. Insa Theesfeld
Supervisor and Reviewer: Prof. Dr. Thomas Herzfeld
Co-Reviewer: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Drini Imami
Diese Veröffentlichung kann kostenfrei im Internet unter
<www.iamo.de/dok/sr_vol84pdf> heruntergeladen werden.
This publication can be downloaded free from the website
<www.iamo.de/dok/sr_vol84pdf>.
 2016
Leibniz-Institut für Agrarentwicklung in Transformationsökonomien (IAMO)
Theodor-Lieser-Straße 2
06120 Halle (Saale)
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.iamo.de
ISSN 1436-221X
ISBN 978-3-95992-034-6
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Completion of this doctoral thesis was possible with the support of many people, to
whom I take the opportunity to express my immense gratitude.
First of all, I am extremely grateful to my doctor parents, Prof. Dr. Insa Theesfeld and
Prof. Dr. Thomas Herzfeld for their academic guidance, continuous support and en-
couragement throughout the research work. Their doors were always opened for
me. They often had to even sacrifice their family time and holidays to read the va-
rious drafts I sent them. Thank you for all your help and support!
I also would like to thank my RAP and IAMO colleagues for the stimulating discus-
sions and their helpful advices throughout the research process. Especially, I would
like to thank Prof. Dr. Martin Petrick for his support during my early phases of the re-
search.
Furthermore, I would like to thank my Halle friends Ivan, Vasyl, Markus, Kuenda,
Ariola, Taras, Frank, Giorgi, Felix, Bretti, Ilkay, Maria, Lena, Nizami, Gulmira, Andriy,
Christa, Miranda, Konstantin and Eefje for the great times we enjoyed together.
A special thank you goes to my officemates Diana Traikova, Doris Marquardt,
Katharina Karsten, Iryna Kulyk and Nurzat Baisakova for having to cope with my
mess once in a while.
I also deeply appreciate the support of all IAMO's administration, especially
Gabriele Mewes, Christian Drondorf, Silke Scharf, Sabine Tretin, Heike Lehmann
and IT specialists Tim Illner, Lothar Lehmann and Jürgen Heep.
In Albania, I would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Drini Imami from Tirana Agricultural
University for his readiness to review this thesis and for his constructive comments
and support. I would also like to thank my colleagues and friends Edvin Zhllima and
Elvina Merkaj for sharing their ideas and inputs on different contextual issues that
came up during the research and for helping me to establish contacts with diffe-
rent actors involved in water management at the central and regional administra-
tions. The work in the field was made easier thanks to the help of Xhemal Hasko,
Fiqiri Xhabija, Artur Frroku and Ergert Pire.
ii Acknowledgments
Endless thank yous I owe to my dear friends Florian, Wiebke, Theresa, Georg, Alkida,
Frederike, Aaron, Lili, Ervin, Qazim, Gezim, Loku, Ela, Johannes, Nic, Ad, Moritz, Oscar
and Roman for supporting me intellectually and emotionally all these years.
Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my family for everything.

Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of IAMO. Without this sup-
port, this work would have not been possible.

Klodjan Rama

Halle (Saale), 2016
SUMMARY
This study aims at analysing the major issues concerning Albania’s water sector.
Albania’s natural conditions are characterised by abundant quantities of water
resources, often too much. Yet, the demands of, especially, the agricultural sector
are still not fully met.
The first issue dealt with in this study focuses on the assessment of the impacts of
major institutional changes and policy reforms for sustainable water resource mana-
gement enforced during the post-socialist transition period. Similar to other count-
ries of Eastern Bloc, Albania underwent radical changes in the general institutional
and legislative framework, including the water sector. One of the major policy
reforms consisted in shifting the governance and management of irrigation systems
from central state agencies to local water user groups, namely Water User Associa-
tions/Organisations (WUA/O). These local water user groups were assigned respon-
sibilities for delivering irrigation water to farmers and maintain lower-level irrigation
and drainage canals. Additional changes in the institutional framework concerning
management and governance of water resources are expected to take place in the
course of Albania’s progression into the European Union. In this case, Albania is
required to align its water-related legislation with the EU’s Water Framework Direc-
tive.
The second major issue investigated in the study concerns the involvement of local
communities in the management of irrigation systems. A particular focus is paid on
analysing and understanding the determinants that may affect farmers’ propensity
to contribute financially or with labour in maintenance of irrigation and drainage
canals. These determinants were grouped in three main categories; institutional,
socio-economic and physical. The main institutional determinants identified are the
land reform and the governance structure responsible for managing irrigation
systems at the community level. The socio-economic determinants included the size
of the community, distance to market centres and individual traits of farmers such as
trust and wealth. Water scarcity measured by farmers’ perception over the fulfilment
of their water needs was considered a relevant determinant for capturing physical
attributes of the irrigation systems.