The restoration of water quality in Seman basin through sustainable practices. Convert settlements activities waste into energy supply source

Despite the Seman region is the most fertile area in Albania, the human actions in last 20 years has compromised its integrity, especially in relation with the quality of water which can be identified as the main factor to spoil the Basin area. Uncontrolled and informal settlements with their related activities represent a risk for the whole area, its farming potential and people health. Preserving the remaining integrity and restoring as much as possible the environment characteristics, has to be a priority for national and regional Governments' strategies as well as for basin's inhabitants. Restoring the water quality must be the first point to focus on. In fact the water has a double role as for human life as for earth life. An high quality of the water is fundamental to preserve the quality of life and the quality of soil and consequently of land products. The factors which are the causes for the loss of quality of Seman water, starting from its natural riverbed and arriving to its artificial drains are numerous, but the one of the most important is the waste generated by household activities. The absence of primary services especially in informal settlements, provokes the dump of sewage and of dirty water in Seman water; the incorrect waste disposal practices and an absence of a diffused people awareness on the problem, produce a waste concentration down the river banks, with environmental consequences which increase the water pollution from its spring to its mouth. Waste and sewage represent today for the Seman basin population a sanitary, social and economic danger which has to be afforded promptly with strong policies and new guidelines, but the inhabitants theirselves can be addressed towards new sustainable practices. The people can contribute in the management of their waste and of their sewage with few investments, but able to generate virtuous community tools towards new sustainable practices. The utilization of the households' waste like resource can be a kilometer 0 element to contribute in the water quality problems solution. Domestic Anaerobic Digestion from the waste organic fraction, community sewage digester can hold responsible people with a multiple result: the maintenance of their settlements; the improvement of the water quality which they use for their daily activities, as for drinking as for irrigation; the supply of their houses with biogas usable as for cooking as for energy co-generation. These results represent for Seman's inhabitants an economic opportunity to save money and this immediate economic advantage is the most effective incentive for the application of these actions so to promote these practices. The paper wants to better understand the possibility to introduce these small scale systems in a Seman basin settlements. The work's aim is to imagine a scenario where people are leading of the Seman water quality restoration through tools which can managed personally and which can increase the awareness about the problem of environment. The solutions for water quality improvement can be more than one, but a bottom-up approach can lead to a longer success because it works on people personal interests.