
The government issued a regulatory act ordering all businesses on the coast to invest in wastewater treatment plants. In fact, in April 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku inspected dozens of hotels from north to south to see if they had implemented it or not, in order to prevent untreated wastewater from being dumped into the sea. The act resulted in fines from the National Territorial Protection Inspectorate, as businesses began to invest privately. A huge “fine” for tourism, as installing a simple plant costs a minimum of 15 to 20 thousand euros, not to mention the costs of removing the water.
But the initiative seems to be only for small businesses, those who barely make it through the season. The complete opposite happens with large businesses, or the so-called Strategic Investors. Those who received hundreds of thousands of square meters of free land on the coast and are building villas, bars and hotels on public property. The government builds roads for these oligarchs, delivers uninterrupted drinking water, provides sewage and everything they need. It even takes the garbage to their door, while special cleaning tenders are held.
One of the most flagrant cases is the government investment in Jalë, while the initiative of the National Water Supply and Sewerage Agency seems to be a private investment for businessman Alban Xhillari, who has also been declared a strategic investor. Mr. Xhillari has several businesses in Jalë, initially with “Folie Marine” and then with entire tourist villages, where the beautiful hill of Jalë was given free of charge to the “Soleil & Sea” project, where villas, bars, restaurants and hotels are being built. A residential area, where it is thought that all projects will be done by the private sector, from roads to sewage systems. But, not in this case, since AKUK has announced the winners of the design tender.
According to documents available to the VoxNews editorial team , AKUK director Klevis Jahaj, the one who went out alongside Balluk to small businesses to force them to build plants, has announced the winners of the tender with the object of "study and design of a wastewater treatment plant and the KUZ system, Jalë", with a limit fund of 22,652,500 lek with a design duration of 6 months. The firm "A&E ENGINEERING" offered a value of 19,450,000 lek, while the winners "STUDIOARCH4", "ERSI/M" and "CEC GROUP" offered 19,421,102 lek. The first firm was disqualified because it did not have equipment for bathymetric measurements.
In the accompanying documents, AKUK writes that the project aims to improve the situation of wastewater collection, disposal and treatment for the population of this area through the construction of a sewage network accompanied by an appropriate concept for wastewater treatment.
" Jala is part of the Himara Administrative Unit, Himara Municipality and has an area of ??36.01 ha. One of the biggest problems for the Jala area but also for the entire Himara Municipality is the collection and processing of wastewater. This problem becomes very serious during the tourist season. This area lacks a sewage network, where the solution to the removal of wastewater is done individually based on septic tanks on the private property of each family, which at best represent underground concrete ponds covered with concrete covers, but in many cases they only encounter simple pits with covers and without lining their inner walls," these documents state.
It is further written that in order to avoid the risk of pollution of underground water basins and the sea, the construction of a wastewater treatment plant for the residents of the Jala area should be envisaged. Accompanying the documents is a map where the investment will be made, which coincides with Mr. Xhillari's businesses, "Folie Marine" and "Soleil & Sea", as well as on several hills that are being eroded and villas, bars and hotels are being built.
" The selection of areas for investment was made according to a series of strategic documents drafted that address issues related to sanitation at the national and local levels ," the documents state, which prove that these investors are in question.
The area where the investment is being made has been a "bone of contention" between businessman Xhillari and the residents of the area, who strongly opposed his declaration as an investor. However, the intervention "from above" led to the residents being detained, prosecuted and arrested for opposition, while the property was also taken away with highly questionable decisions by the Vlora Cadastre, where some directors were forced to sign in favor of strategic businessmen. There was even a report by the Albanian Supreme Audit Institution (ALSH) suggesting that the Investor be removed from that area. However, not only was it not canceled, but the state-owned area was added to the firm "Soleil & Sea", where it received a total of 220 thousand meters.
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