Greening Land

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Kosovo, as one of the youngest countries on the continent — both based on its new statehood and the young average age of its population (26 years) — has substantial development potential yet faces challenges. Kosovo is rich with many mineral resources including coal, lead, zinc, chromium, and silver; however, unsustainable past and current industrial activities exploiting these resources has generated environmental and health risks and impacts. The Government in Kosovo has been making efforts to address environmental issues, however further efforts are required. The government has recognized that redevelopment of contaminated land, especially brownfields will generate significant economic value and environmental and social benefits. The World Bank’s recent report estimated that the number of contaminated sites in Kosovo requiring remediation is about 200 , limiting land available for development. The issues in the environment sector translate into constraints in the management of contaminated land in Kosovo. Efforts towards implementing the NDS on rehabilitation of contaminated sites, have been mostly supported by the international partners. Given the above-mentioned constraints, which will further magnify the scale of land contamination, international good practices and phased actions to remediation and redevelopment of contaminated land are needed. The proposed project aims to support the country in developing and implementing a long-term action plan for contaminated land remediation and redevelopment in Kosovo.The proposed project is consistent with The National Development Strategy (NDS) 2016-2021 and the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) 2017-2021 for Kosovo. The project is in line with the NDS calling for projects for reducing environmental and health risks from contaminated land and hazardous waste. Also, the project is in line with the third focus area in the CPF 2017-2021, namely “Promoting Reliable Energy and Stewardship of the Environment – improve management of natural resource, and address environment contamination and enhance energy efficiency and renewable energy”, and directly contributing to the Objective 9 and Indicator 19, by reclaiming industrial polluted land posing environmental and health risk. Accordingly, the project also contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6,7, 8, 9, 12 and 13. The proposed project supports the national aspiration on EU accession by addressing the existing gaps in pollution and waste management to meet EU acquis environment chapter, and close alignment with the zero-pollution ambition for a toxic free environment in the European Green Deal.The project will provide support to the government in addressing the key constraints in managing contaminated land. It will do so through: a) investments in select sites to demonstrate international good practices for contaminated land remediation and redevelopment and b) enabling activities at both the national and local levels for developing the necessary policy / regulatory and institutional framework, building capacity, addressing data / information gaps, and developing a long-term action plan for contaminated land remediation and redevelopment in the country. SRBLM will be the principal approach to be promoted through the proposed project. The project will contribute to Kosovo’s commitment to the process of EU accession and alignment of environment and climate change regulation with the EU acquis. It is expected that the project will be the starting point of a longer-term program for addressing land contamination legacy in Kosovo. Subsequent phases for scaling-up are anticipated either as additional f inancing or as a new project to be funded by the Bank or/and other partners. The proposed project consists of four components: (i) Developing a Durable and Long-term system for Managing Land Contamination, (ii) Demonstrating Sustainable Risk-based Contaminated Land Remediation and Redevelopment, (iii) Project management, monitoring and evaluation, and (iv) Contingent Emergency Response Component (CERC).Under Component 2, a first site has been confirmed, which is a brownfield site located in greater Pristina area. The total site is about 104 ha of brownfield land, among which some owned by Kosovo Energetic Corporation (KEK) and the rest by Kosovar Privatization Agency and multiple private owners. The site was moderately polluted due to mining activities in the past. The combined remediation and redevelopment actions to be implemented under the project are to repurpose the site as a future public park. As some land of the overburden area (southern part) is owned by the Kosovo Privatization Agency or privately owned, necessary arrangements with the land owners should take place prior to remediation of the overburden area. As such, the proposed remediation works will be carried out in two phases, with the first phase focused on the infilled mine galleries (about 18 ha) (which is wholly owned by KEK) and the second phase on the overburden area (about 86 ha). The first phase of the remediation can be considered as a pilot testing with the remediation pond installed and water management of the area, before moving to the larger park after the land ownership is addressed.