Western Balkans Environment Programe

Bajza is the last railway station in Albania before the frontier with Montenegro, and it acts as a customs control point. The station is located at the shore of trans-boundary Shkoder/Skadar Lake - the largest lake on the Balkan Peninsula.  Both Albania and Montenegro have officially designated it as the cross-border protected area of Shkoder/Skader Lake together with Buna/Bojana River. In addition, with the designation of the Albanian part of the Shkoder (Skader) Lake and Buna (Bojana) River as a Ramsar site the entire lake is now included in the Ramsar list. During 1991-1992, the German company Schmidt-Cretan as a donation to Albania, exported and temporarily stored in Bajza 480 tons of hazardous chemicals including toxaphene and phenyl mercury acetate, both of which had been banned in the EU since 1983. Unloading was stopped when it was noted that the pesticides were out of date. Complaints were made, and the German authorities agreed to take the load back, which they did. However, in the interim local Albanians had emptied some of the drums in order to use them for household purposes. Some drums were emptied directly on the ground, and the contents dispersed towards Shkodra Lake, reportedly killing cattle. A substantial number of dead fish in the lake was also reported in 1993, although there are no proven records that this can be linked with incidents that took place at Bajza railway station. The expected project outcomes are the full cleaning and rehabilitation of Bajza hot spot from expired pesticides and industrial chemicals