Monday, February 2, 2009

World Bank Suspends Controversial Albania Project

Demolished house in Jale. The World Bank has announced the suspension of a loan from the International Development Association for a project that while meaning to safeguard Albania’s coast was found to have been used to demolish parts of a village and leave many families homeless.

“On January 9, the World Bank has suspended temporarily the disbursement of the IDA loan for the project for Coastal Zones Integrated Management and Clean-Up, because of a row between the government and the project, in which the later aimed to concentrate in planning and land use, while the government wanted apply its politics to control illegal construction,” the bank said in a statement.

An internal report IDA report, obtained by Balkan Insight, shows that a World Bank project on coastal zones management in southern Albania aided the demolishment of informal settlements in the village of Jale, in disregard to the Bank's policies of forced displacement.

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