(ANSA-AFP) - ZHARREZ, 19 GEN - The people of Zharrez in
central Albania live amid a stinking apocalyptic landscape of
leaking oil wells and rusting storage tanks, the soil blackened
from spills of crude that seep into their water.
"We all have health problems," said Milita Vrapi, one of
2,000 villagers who live cheek by jowl with the Balkan nation's
largely unregulated oil industry. "The air is very heavy. I
often feel dizzy and nauseous with headaches and persistent
fatigue," she said the 49-year-old mother as a ramshackle rig
wheezed into life only four metres from her home.
The water is undrinkable and the vegetables in her garden no
longer grow, she said. Abandoned wells and storage tanks and
rusted and leaking pipelines litter the oil-rich Patos-Marinza
area, where swamps and little lakes of black crude scar the
landscape. Much of the equipment in the oil fields has not been
maintained for nearly three decades.
- Stinking air - "Black gold has brought millions of dollars
out of the ground, but local residents have hardly benefited
from it," said villager Marsilin Senka, while clutching his
two-month-old baby, who has acute bronchitis. The air stinks
from old wells that have been left open and crude left to rot in
crumbling tanks and open-air pits. In summer some locals say it
is unbreathable.
Zharrez alone has around a dozen wells run by state-owned
Albpetrol -- most half a century old -- just a stone's throw
from homes. Others in the area are operated by the Chinese
Bankers Petroleum group. "Pollution is not a priority for the
oil companies," Senka added. "More than 18,000 square metres are
heavily polluted by crude oil because infrastructure has been
left abandoned for more than 25 years, with harmful effects on
the environment and the health of the inhabitants," said Qani
Rredhi, the head of the village's environmental group. Even
human rights groups have condemned the situation, with the
Albanian Helsinki Committee saying in its latest report that
"the proximity of residential areas and greenhouses to oil
fields and old wells... and the lack of safety and
rehabilitation measures are of great concern."
- Illness - Locals say the oil fields may be responsible for
myriad health problems affecting residents. "The number of
inhabitants who complain of respiratory problems, high
concentrations of carbon dioxide in the blood or who suffer from
illnesses linked to industrial activities is very high," said
Adriatik Golemi, another local environmentalist. Under the
communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha people were mostly
prevented from living in the area. But following the fall of his
regime, authorities tolerated the return of small numbers of
impoverished residents and others settling in the area.
Environmental groups have also linked the pollution to cancers
which have claimed the lives of several locals.
However, Fatjon Shehu -- the head of the village health
centre -- said it was difficult to establish a link in the
absence of proper studies, especially with the rise in
respiratory illness caused by Covid-19. Beyond the health
problems, locals also complain about the risk of injury or death
from accidents connected to the industry. - Drownings - "Three
years ago, a woman drowned in an oil pit while going after her
chickens," Golemi told AFP, saying the village has at least five
similar areas where oil is stored in pits. There have also been
"cases of livestock and birds drowning in the oil", added Redhi,
who also complained of the "strong gas fumes" spewing from
abandoned wells. Despite the damage the oil industry causes,
Albania only produces 4.6 million barrels of crude a year, which
is used to make bitumen for roads. It does however have large
reserves estimated at nearly three billion barrels, although it
has has to import all its petrol since its only refinery was
closed in 2019. Shell has since announced a "significant
discovery of light crude" at Shpirag in southern Albania. The
country's Ministry of Energy said the authorities were
determined to solve the environmental problems posed by the oil
industry.
"The companies working in the Patos-Marinza oil fields are
putting in place action plans for the rehabilitation of all the
dilapidated infrastructure," told AFP. But locals want action
now. Artemisa Vrapi, Milita's 16-year-old daughter, said the
situation was unacceptable. "We should not only think about the
economy and the extraction of oil, but about saving lives,
saving our environment and our planet," Vrapi told AFP.
Meanwhile, the rickety rig next to their home has been broken
down for a week and oil worker Kadri Shahu, 58, is trying to
repair it. Without performance bonuses, his 540-euro-a-month
salary is not enough to feed his family of six. bme-ev/ds/fg
/ (ANSA-AFP).
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The black hell of Albania's ageing oil fields
Brought millions dollars, but local residents hardly benefited