Financial Resources on Waste Management

Waste management is becoming increasingly important for Albania, while approaching towards the EU membership. It is a decentralized function, hence responsibility for service delivery is delegated to the lowest level of governance: to the local government units (LGUs). The sector is characterized by the lack of efficiency in service delivery, while investments are scarce and LGUs still suffer lack of financial resources for appropriate infrastructure investments. The total cost coverage mechanism for the waste management is week and cannot ensure sustainability of the funding for the service provided. LGUs have problems with management financing for the waste management service and do not cover the cost of service provision. This paper aims to focus on the risk factors, which influences the cost recovery for the waste service. It builds on the background related to the context of the waste management, in order to provide a wide picture of the actual situation.