The Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Kaja Shukova, the Ambassador of Switzerland, Veronique Hulmann, and the Resident Representative of UNDP, Armen Grigoryan, participated in the 5th meeting of the Project Board of the project “Improving flood resistance in the Polog region” financed by the Government of Switzerland and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning.
At the meeting, an overview of the activities carried out in the past year was given, and the plans for the next year were presented.
The project is multi-year, multi-component, and complex. In 2023, several activities were carried out within the various components of the project. In the section on the implementation of measures for urban resilience, the efforts to clean the atmospheric network in the city of Gostivar and the construction of an atmospheric network in the city of Tetovo were elaborated. In the section on the stabilization of landslides, the implemented projects were presented: the stabilization of the landslide in Senakos, the stabilization of the landslide in Lomnica, the stabilization of the landslide in Dolna Lesnica, the stabilization of the landslide in Staro Selo, the stabilization of the landslide in Pirok and the landslide in Jelovjane, and the stabilization of the landslide in HPP Pena.
The common view was that sustainability of the project and protection of the population and environment in this region, which is extremely exposed to the risks of floods, landslides, and other natural disasters, can only be achieved with the maximum involvement of all stakeholders, especially local authorities and the population, through raising awareness and developing positive habits and behaviors regarding waste management, forest protection, etc.