Dear all,

I finally finished my thesis and would like to thank everyone contributing with information and help. The thesis is available on the SuSana library, following the link: www.susana.org/lang-en/library?view=ccbktypeitem&type=2&id=1535

It does not present ready solutions for Albania, but gives an overview over the actual situation of the water and sewerage sector, some technologies and summarises the situation in rural areas of Albania. It also presents more details of constructed wetlands. I found some more information about the prices for CWs. These were (some are already mentioned in the posts below):

CW in Tirana, SOS-children's village (GIZ project):
- investment costs: 50,000 € what gives specific costs of 230€/PE
- operation costs: electricity for pumping

CW in Sveti Tomaz, Slovenia (built by the company Limnos):
- Investment costs of 50.000 Euro for 205 inhabitants, therefore specific costs are 250€/PE. This number is closer to the construction costs of the SOS children's village in Tirana.
- Operation costs: 200 €/month
(source: www.susana.org/docs_ccbk/susana_download...-eastern-europe.pdf, p. 51)

CW in Vidare, Bulgaria (project of WECF and EcoWorld 2007):
- investment costs for 80PE: around 600€/PE

CW for households in rurl areas of Poland (EuroNatur project):
- investment costs per household: around 1,000€. Assuming 4 to 5 people per household, specific costs will be around 200 to 250€/PE

average costs in other countries (Germany, Austria and Italy):
- construction costs between 150€/PE and 270€/PE

Just to have a comparison: The average income in Albania is something between 200 and 300€ per month and much less in rural areas.

Sabine

Dear all,

I would like to share some pictures with you that show rural areas in Albania. For me it was very impressing to get out of Tirana and to see how different solutions in the rural area have to be.

www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/collections/72157627133453606/

All the best,
Sabine

Dear all,

sorry for my late response, but I'm pleased to see the discussion. I finally arrived in Tirana and I'm looking forward to visit the plants here.

Concerning the costs of CW I found only one documentation until now:

CW in Sveti Tomaz (Slovenia), built by Limnos:
- Investment costs of 50.000 Euro for 205 inhabitants come up to 250 Euro/ person. This number is closer to the construction costs of the SOS children's village in Tirana.
- Operation costs: 200 Euro/month
(source: www.susana.org/docs_ccbk/susana_download...d-eastern-europe.pdf, p. 51)

Best regards,
Sabine

Dear all,

thank you all for this interesting discussion going on.

Regarding the costs, I agree with Florian that it is very difficult to compare different cases if you are not calculating all kind of costs, from the user interface and the pipes to the price for the land.

However, I found an interesting page from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)on constructed wetlands with many information like case studies, manuals and guidelines, which I would like to share with you: water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/restore/cwetlands.cfm

On this page is a collection of 17 cws (Constructed Wetlands
for Wastewater Treatment and Wildlife Habitat) in the US using different systems and approaches:
water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/upload/2004_...etlands-Complete.pdf

Cheers,
Philipp

Hi Martina,

the linked pdf document is the reference list of Limnos, so yes, all those projects have been done with Limnos involvement (I don't know the company directly myself). To understand the titles I used goolge translate...

Organisation and financing of O+M is the crucial part, that we also experience in our project in Moldova. Sludge management being the biggest issue for O+M, firstly because sludge usually isn't evacuated in time, and secondly because of the lack of proper sludge treatment and disposal. In Moldova we tried to solve this by using vertical flow CWs as first stage, that directly recieve unsettled wastewater, thus accumulate and mineralise sludge on the surface. Can't tell about results yet, as these plants just entered operation.

For investment cost/capita it's a bit difficult to compare. Introducing a new technology to a country where it is not yet common, a lot of effort is needed to raise awareness and build capacities at authorities, design and construction companies and operators. If all these costs are calculated, costs/capita for the first few facilities will be huge.

Florian

Dear Claudia,

600€/PE investment cost sounds quite high to me. Do you have further experiences from other CWs? Is this a common price within WECF projects?
- I hope other colleagues feel encouraged to join this discussion and report on their experiences as well. I highly appreciate that Claudia shares her expierence with us.

I just checked the investment costs for the CW in the SOS children village and there it comes up to 230€/PE.

Do you have your sludge management already organised. or is this the next step following?

Yours, Martina.

Dear Martina,

for distribution of investment costs in the case of Vidrare, Bulgaria, please have a look on page 16 of www.wecf.eu/download/2011/june/WECF_Cons...d_Wetlands.engl..pdf

The investment costs are around 600 euro per PE.
For o&m, these are mainly the daily or weekly check by staff, the pumping costs and emptying the primary sedimentation tank once or twice a year.
The sludge discharge might be a crucial issue because of the costs first. Secondly it might be a problem if there is no option to safely treat or dispose it.

Claudia

Dear Florian, dear Claudia,

thanks for your feedback. That's really helpful as a lot of information is only available in the national languages. As already visible in your pdf, Florian. Do you have a translation of the headings available? Who did all those CWs? Limnos?

Besides, it would be very interesting to know a bit about the costs of such systems and how O&M is organised (and who pays for it)!

Maybe somebody from the projects themselves would like to join this discussion and share his/her information. I know that you have a lot of other things to do as well.

Yours, Martina.

Dear Claudia, dear Florian,

thank you for your responds, it's very useful for me. Next week I will go to Tirana and start in the office there and I'm looking forward this work!

Regards,
sabine

Hi Sabine,

we implemented a vertical flow constructed wetland in Bulgaria this year (80 PE).

Please see the case study here
wecf.eu/download/2011/june/WECF_Constructed_Wetlands.engl..pdf
and some photos:
www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/sets/72157627058487862/

I dont know if that is useful for you

best regards
Claudia

Hi Sabine,

very interesting! We are currently looking into the possibility of introducing CWs to Kosovo, so I am very interested to learn about your findings in Albania and the region.

For Slovenia, you can contact the company Limnos, they have designed a number of CWs in Slovenia and also Italy I think. Here their reference list for CWs: www.limnos.si/docs/reference/reference_r...cistilne_naprave.pdf

I beleive that in one of our projects in Bosnia, a couple of CWs have been constructed. I will check when back in the office (currently in Moldova, where we also work with constructed wetlands, but I guess thats too far from your region .

In France there is also huge experience with constructed wetlands, I can give you a contact if you are interested in that region.

All the best!
Florian

Dear all,

I am master student in Environmental Engineering at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany, with the specification in Sanitary Environmental Engineering. At the moment I am writing my master thesis about constructed wetlands for domestic wastewater treatment in rural areas in Albania. I will work in Tirana the next months under supervision of the German Development Association (GIZ).

I will try to cover the following aspects in my thesis:
- Technical solution
- Investment costs and costs for operation and maintenance
- Socio-economical aspects (attitude of Albanian population towards environmental protection/water treatment, income situation, willingness to pay, acceptance of water re-use,...)
- Legal framework

I already started to review documents about constructed wetlands in Albania and other Mediterranean countries. But it is not that easy to find information about the financial or socio-economical aspects of projects located in the Balkan area.

So far, I know about the following Constructed Wetlands (CW) in Albania:
- CW in SOS children’s village Tirana (supporting agencies GIZ, GDWSS)
- CW for nutrient reduction Tirana river (supported by Living Water Exchange)
- CW in Korce (but no information about the organisation that built the plant or operates and maintains it)
- CW at school in Narta (the only information I got about this plant is that the plant is not working because there is no drinking water supply and therefore no wastewater)

Aditionally, I started to review papers about CWs in neighboring countries and found that for example Greece has several plants and that Serbia as well as Slovenia started to use the technology of CWs.

My sources were the GIZ documentations and contact lists, the SuSanA library
as well as research in the internet through google search.

If there is anyone who could help me with some experience in the field of CW in Mediterranean countries, with articles, information, contact, etc. I would be really happy about it.

Thank you very much!

Sabine Niebel
Intern for GIZ Albania and MSc student