We take the trash out of Vlora's eyes and put it in his lungs (Responsible for the Municipality, failure of the Ministry!)

By Ornela Çuçi

Vlora, the city that should have been the symbol of government investment in tourism in the last 11 years, has turned into the arena of an environmental disaster directed by the authorities. The illegal burning of waste, in an equally illegal landfill, is taking on alarming proportions, repeating itself for the tenth year in a row.

This is not just an environmental emergency. Not just carelessness. It is the organized mismanagement of all the local bodies in Vlora, the central government and the law enforcement bodies, which have their share of irresponsibility as well. This is because the public assets under investigation are indeed seized (as required by law), but this cannot be done in an amateurish way, leaving the property to the mercy of fate. The final works of waste management in the country (incinerators and landfills) are facilities of major importance at the national level.

Regardless of what is being burned (mixed municipal waste, plastics, or "recycled" products), burning waste creates and/or releases, in addition to carbon gases, harmful chemicals and pollutants, including:

Air pollutants such as fine particles, which cause lung and heart disease;

Heavy metals such as lead and mercury, which cause neurological diseases;

Toxic chemicals like PFAS and dioxins, which cause cancer and other health problems.

Every time I see pictures from Vlora in the last few days, apart from the pain for this property that is going to waste, this definition of the World Health Organization comes to mind. In Vlora, the city that should be the pride of the government's investments in the last 11 years, the tourist and the citizen of Vlora are faced with an environmental disaster carelessly managed by the authorities. The illegal burning of waste in an illegal landfill has reached alarming proportions, repeatedly, for several years in a row. But for the local authorities, this appears to be just another episode in an ongoing display of vandalism by whoever runs off in an unknown direction as the authorities chase after him.

In fact, this is just indifference and irresponsibility of the authorities. Therefore, dear Mayor, before you go looking for the author in the direction of the defendant, consider that the Waste Law, article 21, point 16 recognizes you as personally responsible for the management and administration of waste that is created in the territory of the unit where you exercise your duty . Also add to this point the fact that burning waste is an environmental crime, and environmental crimes are already part of the criminal code.

For the responsible ministry, silence on this matter is the best proof of its failure. The management of the sector is not just a few photos like a rooster tipping the manure during cooperative actions without gloves; because it seems clear that the sector is collapsing except for the propaganda photos. Although in fact the collapse has not yet fully appeared while the Ministry of Tourism "dances" around the burning waste in Vlora.

In all this fog of information, from the media on one side and the smoke that is taking their breath away on the other, citizens should know that this is an inherited problem that will apparently have to be there for a very long time.

The analyzes carried out during the years 2016-2017 identified the need for a landfill in the village of Sherishte, south of the Vlora district, with optimal sanitary conditions. Work began with fanfare, and in June 2021 it was supposed to be inaugurated. But due to complex problems, including sequestration, this almost finished landfill was never put into operation. The loan received from KFW will be paid for a long time by Albanian citizens, while the landfill that has not worked for a single day has started to depreciate. No one knows when this landfill will be able to start working. No one yet knows if this landfill will have the desperate fate of the Fier incinerator or even worse, the complete mismanagement of the Elbasan incinerator.

But where do the remains of Vlora go in the meantime?

In an illegal storage site of 12.6 ha. The one that is currently burning is a landfill that has no operation decision even by the Municipal Council, never. There is no environmental permit. In 2015 it was proposed for the first time for immediate closure. In 2018, about 140 tons/day were deposited there, according to the report produced that year by the Ministry of Environment. In this report, the decision taken by the group of local engineers, responsible authorities and Swiss supervisors, specifies that this landfill "must be closed and the surrounding area rehabilitated, because it is located near residential areas and has exceeded its utilization capacity". Today, each of us can do the calculations, 6 years later and add the numbers of tourists that are added every year in the country. Especially in Vlora.

The municipality has legally deposited the waste in this illegal landfill, permanently. Without taking any protective measures for them. No gas vents, no 24/7 protective management, no full enclosure, no groundwater discharge. Nothing!

There is no need to set the waste on fire, as it catches fire on its own at these temperatures. However, the remains in this illegal landfill site near the Aviation field in Vlora, so close to residential areas, are burned because they have to make room for others to be deposited.

There is so much room. This is an illegal storage place.

There are no landfill cells, no additional pits, no maintenance. Grab and throw! If we remove them from the city because the tourists take photos, the authorities will do badly. We take it out of his eyes and put it in his lungs. No one understands this, because Albania is the only country in Europe that does not have any data on how pollution affects the population's diseases.

In this strange scene, where the burning of waste turns into a grim performance, the residents of Vlora are the innocent spectators. Perpetual sufferers and those who pay for this irresponsibility. The indifference of the authorities, the silence of the Vlonia opinion are the wonder that accompanies the decline of tourism in one of the most potential tourism countries in Albania. Vlora is not and cannot be used as a front for government propaganda videos that sell nothing but the imaginary success of the tourism minister and the government.