Water Projects Stream into Eastern Europe/ Central Asia

Ohrid Municipal Office of Tourism A monastery on the Macedonian coast of Lake Ohrid, Europe's oldest lake.

Croatia received two loans for water projects: A $40.6 million (equivalent) loan to support the country's efforts to repair war-damaged water infrastructure needed for restoring the farm economies of Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Srijem; and $36.3 million (equivalent) to clean up Croatia's municipal water supply. Under this project, polluted sewerage will be diverted away from Kastela Bay and Trogir Bay. The project will increase the availability of safe drinking water.

GEF Support for Aral Sea, Lake Ohrid

Water conservation efforts in the region also got a helping hand from the Global Environment Facility*, a UNDP-UNEP-World Bank grant facility.

A grant of about $12.2 million from the GEF was approved to support the Aral Sea Basin Program, launched in 1995 by the World Bank. The project will tackle the root causes of overuse and degradation of the basin. The gradual drying up of the Aral Sea basin, which lies in the heart of Central Asia, is adversely affecting the environment and health of those who live around it, and economic activity. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, countries that rely most on water from the basin, are collaborating on the project.

And efforts to save one of the largest biological reserves in Europe also got a boost from the GEF with a $4.1 million grant to Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Estimated to be about 2 to 3 million years old and one of Europe's oldest lakes, Lake Ohrid, and the many animals and plants that thrive there, is threatened by encroaching pollution and poor management of the catchment area and the shoreline. Albania and FYR Macedonia have joined to manage the lake's watershed and invest in protective measures to avoid further damage and future clean-up costs.

On the industrial pollution front, the World Bank moved ahead with a GEF grant of $23.2 million to support Ukraine's efforts to phase out ozone-depleting substances.

*The GEF provides grant and concessional funds to developing countries and transition economies to protect the global environment in four areas—biological diversity, climate change, international waters, and the ozone layer.
For more information, call Marjorie Robertson, (202) 458-8048, fax 522-3362, or e-mail mrobertson@worldbank.org.