Sawmill in emergency, landfill overflowing with garbage

2024-05-10 14:45:00, Denoncim CNA

The incinerator that was never built is causing an environmental crisis in the Sharra area of ??Tirana. The landfill is filled with garbage beyond the allowed capacity. In addition to the pollution from the garbage, the residents of the area are also suffering from the lack of water. Environmental experts call the situation an emergency.

On the morning of May 7, Xhuli Lamuça was grazing cows in the grassy lawn right next to the Tirana landfill, in the village of Sharrë. To access the land that was once theirs, Juli and the other villagers have to pass through a gap in the concessionaire's wire mesh fence.

For more than a month, the lack of water has been added to the difficult coexistence of the residents of Sharra with unpleasant smells and pollution.

"The water sources were closed due to the construction of the incinerator, but we were promised that they would bring us water every day," recalls Xhuli, indicating that they have had to buy water themselves for more than a month.

"I pay 15 thousand old lek every day for the water I buy, I need it because I have cows and the dairy needs cleanliness. I sell milk to buy water", says Julie worriedly.

Sawmill in emergency, landfill overflowing with garbage

After losing their lands from the expropriations for the construction of the Tirana waste treatment project, some of the residents have been employed by the concessionaire.

"Not everyone complains, because some work in garbage and are worried about losing their jobs. Yes, and we who complain, we don't get a solution...", Juli says sadly.

Landfill beyond capacity

The landfill of Tirana has a total capacity of 420 thousand cubic meters of waste. The contract stipulated that the landfill would meet the demand until the construction of the incinerator, which would then burn the garbage to produce electricity. But the incinerator was never built. For this reason, at the end of last year, the waste treatment area was at the limits of its capacity for waste management.

Under these conditions, the Integrated Energy company (administered by the Seized Assets Agency) urgently asked the responsible authorities for permission to build an additional cell for the disposal of urban solid waste.

Sawmill in emergency, landfill overflowing with garbage

However, the new cell has not yet received the green light from the responsible authorities. This means that currently Sharra is beyond the capacity of waste management. The administrator appointed by the state to manage the waste treatment company in Tirana, Arjan Baçi, says that they are still waiting for the clarification of the requested permit.

"We are managing the situation", answered Baçi briefly, without giving details. According to him, for more information, an official request was needed, but since March, attempts to get information through the coordinator for the right to information have failed.

Garbage bins in Sawrë

The footage from Sharra proves the emergency. The garbage of the municipalities of the District of Tirana is becoming a cap in the landfill. The pollution is far from the houses of the authorities who promised the disappearance of garbage, but it remains the same for the inhabitants of the village.

Sawmill in emergency, landfill overflowing with garbage

"We are between two mountains of garbage, how can we not have a problem?! In the summer and when it rains, garbage stinks up all of Sarra...", complains Xhuli Lamuça, a resident of Sarra.

Although in contrast to Elbasan, in the Tirana landfill a good part of the waste is covered with soil, according to experts the problem remains the same. For this reason, they warn that we are in an environmental emergency.

"They are landfills even in landfill conditions, because they are simply gathered there to be burned." But they don't burn and they create an ecological bomb that is waiting there. There will be mountains of waste", says Olsi Nika from ECO Albania.

Despite this situation, the incinerator that was supposed to burn the garbage has been "burning" only public money for years.

Only during this year, the non-existent incinerator of Tirana (for which investigations by SPAK continue) will receive 12 million euros from the state budget. Also, the budget support will continue to be extended over years.

Sawmill in emergency, landfill overflowing with garbage

"The money is taken as if the incinerator was working intensively. So taxpayers, in addition to environmental pollution, are also affected by robbery as big as pollution", says the expert on environmental issues, Ahmet Mehmeti.

According to the official data of the Ministry of Finance, for seven years, the state budget has provided about 122 million euros for the three contracts. Millions more are expected to be awarded over the years.

Instead of the incinerator...

Under these conditions, Olsi Nika says that the government will be forced to accept failure with the incinerators by offering a new solution.

"They will budget again for their disposal. Because the chain of waste management starts at your house and mine, and this chain has never been taken seriously in Albania. Pilot programs, 'shows', strategies have been made and there is no will because the waste is money", he argues.

While Mihallaq Qirjo, professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, sees recycling as a solution.

"We still see the solution in landfills and incinerators, while we must look at the reintroduction of materials that have come out of a cycle of use. So here I judge that we still have room to see the development of the country on a greener path", - Mihallaq Qirjo, professor at the Faculty of Sciences.

Even the European Commission, in the last report for Albania, addressed the need to promote the circular economy, encouraging prevention, reduction of waste generation and reduction of burial in landfills.

However, the only concrete step towards the circular economy in Albania happened this year - without giving a solution to the incinerators. In March, the government created the National Agency for Waste, a structure under the Ministry of Tourism and Environment.

"AKEM will technically support the policies of the ministry responsible for the environment in the field of integrated waste management, with the aim of moving towards a circular economy (the main concept of which is the minimization of waste through reduction, reuse, recycling)", he said in an answer in writing Ministry of Environment.

The agency will have 26 employees in its structure, but its approval is still in process. However, environmental experts do not see the solution of waste management through an Agency.

rear

The concession for the treatment of waste in Tirana was signed on August 31, 2017 by the Ministry of Environment and the company registered in the Netherlands - "Integrated Energy" BV. The concession contract provided for the rehabilitation of the waste storage site in Sharre, as well as the construction of a landfill and an incinerator that will to produce electricity.

"Look at how the battle for a clean European Albania is being won, right in the heart of our country, through a new model of European Union standards for collection, processing and energy production from waste with zero negative impact on air and health", boasted Prime Minister Edi Rama when presenting the 3D video of Sharra's project, almost a year after signing the contract.

According to the prime minister, through this model, the government would undo the curse of garbage in the whole country - not only in Tirana, Elbasan and Fier.

"Don't listen to the noise of the political and media swamps where a thousand and one blacks are marching against these projects that are so beneficial for the environment and health...", insisted Rama in May 2018.

But time proved otherwise. The Elbasan incinerator does not work, the one in Fier was not completed, while in Tirana the incinerator does not exist. Currently, the incinerators are under seizure by the Special Prosecutor against Corruption and Organized Crime. This is after SPAK's investigations concluded that the contracts are corrupt affairs with dozens of arrests, including high public officials./ Faktoje.al