22 November 2021
22.11.2021 - The Assembly of Kosovo in today's session, among other things, also discussed the Annual Report on the State of the Environment 2020.
Previously, the Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Liburn Aliu, presented the annual report on the state of the environment in Kosovo for the year 2020.
In his speech before the deputies, Minister Aliu specified that: "The Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning, and Infrastructure, through the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency, has prepared the Report on the State of the Environment in Kosovo 2020, in accordance with Article 25 of the Law on Environmental Protection No. 03/L-025. The report contains information based on data from monitoring the state of the environment, which presents the state of the environment for the year 2020, changes in the environment compared to the previous report, environmental impacts on public health, implementation of the environmental strategy and action plan, measures taken for environmental protection, development of environmental institutions, and financing of the system for environmental protection".
Speaking about the main findings of the report, Minister Aliu, among other things, highlighted that: "Data from monitoring show exceedances of the maximum allowed values for some parameters, particularly for PM10 and PM2.5, and this is especially during the winter season. The process of identifying sources of pollution, carried out through the air emissions inventory, shows that the largest emissions for PM10 and PM2.5 come from the small combustion sector and industry. The quality of surface waters in Kosovo continues to be affected by pollution resulting from urban and industrial wastewater discharges, uncontrolled dumping of waste into rivers, the use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture, as well as the damage to riverbeds from the exploitation of aggregates and illegal constructions. It has been observed that there has been an increase in the surface areas of urban zones and industrial zones.
and those for mineral extraction, while there have been losses of areas for categories of agricultural land, pastures, and forests, while the areas of green and recreational zones have remained the same. During 2020, the national register of protected areas was added by 7 new zones, increasing the number of protected areas to 217 zones covering an area of 125,816.6 ha or 11.53% of Kosovo's territory. Kosovo continues to face a lack of efficient waste management. Currently, about 84% of generated waste is collected at the national level. Most of it is deposited in sanitary landfills, while there is still no organized system for source separation and recycling of waste," he said, among other things.
After discussions by the deputies, the Annual Report on the State of the Environment was approved with 75 votes in favor, none against, and no abstentions.