Lake Ohrid watershed management plan

Project description

Between the southwest part of North Macedonia and the eastern part of Albania, Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest and deepest lakes in Europe. The Lake Ohrid watershed is part of the extended transboundary Drin River Basin, located in the South-Western part of the Balkan Peninsula and shared between Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro.  The DRB comprises seven sub-basins: Lake Prespa, Lake Ohrid, Black Drin River, White Drin River, Drin River, Lake Skadar/Shkodër and Buna/Bojana River.

The Project was implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) through GWP-Mediterranean (GWP-Med) in cooperation with the UNECE.

The development of the Lake Ohrid Watershed Management Plan WMP was based on: a) regional perspectives within the Ohrid basin in each one of the two countries for economic development, and disparities in poverty and well-being across the basin areas and between rural and urban areas; b) inter-sectorial perspectives in terms of economic value of water used in the different sectors; c) the need to analyze gender difference in access to, control of and use of water resources and plan accordingly; d) the need to coordinate between the two littoral countries as well in each one of the countries, and sequence interventions, among others in the form of investments, to ensure sustainable and economical efficient water resources management in the basin.

RINA scope of supply

RINA carried out a) the Watershed Management Plan (WMP) for the Ohrid Lake divided between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern part of Albania (Task I); and b) test and establish an approach (in the form of Terms of Reference (ToR) for the extended Drin Basin) for the preparation of transboundary management plans in the rivers and lakes of the Drin basin and the definition of the ToR for the development of the Extended Drin Basin Management Plan (Task II).