2015–2025, around 300 million loans for water utilities, but network losses do not change

2025-12-30 07:13:45, Ekonomi CNA

2015–2025, around 300 million loans for water utilities, but network

The Albanian government has received around 589 million euros in foreign loans to finance the water supply and sewage sector, of which around 300 million euros are loans received after 2015, according to official data from the Ministry of Finance.

Including funding from the state budget and the fees paid by citizens to finance the service, the country should have already resolved its drinking water supply issues, but the complete opposite has happened.

Despite these fundings, water losses in the network have remained the same over the last decade. Data from the Water Regulatory Authority shows that technical losses in the network were 67 percent in 2024, compared to 64% in 2023 and at a similar level even earlier.

Of the hundreds of projects financed with foreign loans until 2025, the water supply and sewage sector has absorbed around 599 million euros in the period 1990–2025.

In a country with a population like Albania, this amount would be enough to radically change the water supply. If these investments had been focused on reducing losses in the network, Albania would today be very close to uninterrupted water supply in urban and tourist areas.

Current losses in the network are over 60% and show that the problem is not in water production, but in mismanagement, as water is not billed.

Experts claim that just halving losses would lead to a real increase in supply by 30–40%, without building new sources. Most large cities would have 24-hour water supply.

Investments have been spread across a large number of small projects, often focused on building new infrastructure, without interfering with how the system operates.

According to official data, the average annual capacity of all water sources used for the production of drinking water by monitored water supply and sewage companies for 2021 was 495 million cubic meters. In the same year, the total volume of water produced was 311.2 million cubic meters, while the total demand was 100 million cubic meters.

Data shows that the total water available to all water utilities exceeds the national demand from the customers they serve by about 80%, but meanwhile the country's cities and rural areas, in many cases, suffer from water shortages. Water is produced, but is not converted into a sustainable service for the customer./Monitor.al