TIRANA, July 4 /ATA/ – Only few days after his re-election for a second term in office as Mayor of the Albanian capital, Tirana, Erion Veliaj was invited to attend the Green City event hosted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as part of the London Climate Action Week.
The Green Cities event, which took place at the EBRD Headquarters in London, hailed Tirana as one of the models for the transformation the city has undergone, particularly with regard to efforts aimed at transforming Tirana into a city with healthy, high-quality living standards in a green, resilient and inclusive environment.
Tirana, the cultural, entertainment and political centre of Albania, joined EBRD Green Cities in February 2017.
In his remarks at the event, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj said that a tree planting campaign, which initially met a lot of scepticism, is now a reality and he added that work was already underway to transform the Albanian capital during a more energetic second term in office.
“I am very pleased at energetically kick-starting the second term in office with a visit to our EBRD partners, who have hailed Tirana as one of the model cities for the transformation it has gone through, especially in terms of green initiatives, including the Orbital Forest project that met mounting scepticism initially but plants, trees and flowers are being planted everywhere now and it has now become a kind of contagious movement with children and adults joining the initiative,” Veliaj said.
As one of EBRD’s most trustworthy partners, Tirana has succeeded already in addressing problems with the sewerage network, while improvements were also made in providing water supply to the city potable water supply.
Veliaj shared with EBRD event participants Tirana’s progress in advancing a series of successful initiatives, including cleaning and greening projects, construction of the water supply network, planting 250 thousand trees out of a 2 million target until 2030, the construction of 40 km of bicycle-dedicated lanes, construction of the city’s car-free centre, and construction of 46 children’s playgrounds.
z.tosku/j.p/u.sh/
