In the area of Kombinat, in Tirana, in the third year after the earthquake of November 26, 2019, the works for the reconstruction of housing have not yet started.
Alfred Pietra is one of the residents of the Kombinati area who is looking for any possible information about the fate of the area where he lived until the moment of the earthquake three years ago.
" I got most of the information from social networks and television," he says. "We are the owners of a building. How is it possible that they didn't even notify us about the demolition of the building? Today, we should know how things will be done and what will be done with us. All of this should have been on paper, written, signed by a person in charge, who could be the mayor or anyone else. We don't have any papers in hand for this. We live in a country where you get fined for a tax coupon, while the house is demolished and they don't give you any documents ," says Alfred Pietra, irritated.
We live in hope. We do not have any documents in hand
Ergysa Osmanaj left her apartment a day after the earthquake. He received a rental bonus worth 22000 ALL from the municipality.
"We are a family with three crowns, she says. – Until now we live only in hope, because we do not have any documents in hand."
Even the residents, who have agreed to the demolition of their homes, complain about the lack of information.
According to them, the only solution for them was to accept the move to the new neighborhood, which is rumored to be built very soon.
" We have no documents, no letters, that assure us of reconstruction. We have asked the Municipality of Tirana about reconstruction, if we will have our apartment, on the land where we had it and we have not received any answer. They told us that reconstruction will be done in the new neighborhood, which is being considered to be built at the "Textile Plant". We have no other choice, we will accept it for the new neighborhood, which will be built. We hope to get it there" , - says the resident of the Plant area, JH
Dissatisfaction with ratings
Residents of the Kombinati area are dissatisfied with the experts' assessments.
"Experts in the field have come to evaluate it, but I have not seen a real evaluation, as I think they should do surveys. They just glanced at it and that's it. This did not seem to me to be the work of experts. I would agree to break it, but the form would not be this", - says Alfred Pietra.
Edmond Cata was the administrator of the palace and waited for the experts to accompany them. He is unhappy with the first expertise.
" It was just on paper ," he says, " because no one showed up to evaluate it. The first appraisal was done by the office, since the building has four floors and on paper it turns out to be five floors. "
The former administrator of the building is satisfied with the second expertise.
"It is rated correctly."
Edmond also has a court history with the palace where he lives. He and other residents say that the decision to demolish the building was unfair. The Administrative Court was right and ordered the suspension of the demolition.
" I received the decision of building 146, that is, the building where I live and the one opposite me. I verified that the damages and repairs for both entities were identical, what differed was only the cost. In this way, I wrote a petition and sent it to the Tirana Municipal Council. So far, no response."
Residents themselves got experts for a second expertise. The assessment this time was different.
" They did not issue DS4, on the contrary, they issued DS2 and the cost of the repair was also with a very large difference. Then we went to court, which suspended the decision to demolish the building, until the data was verified. In the third phase, the court then conducted another expertise and overturned the municipality's decision". The government used the earthquake to strengthen an opinion, an idea, a plan to demolish these buildings and to benefit from this case. In order to justify the permission granted by the municipality, these buildings had to be over 70% damaged in order to be demolished, so they took the data from the other building "copy paste", because citizens know that uneducated people ", - says Edmond Cata.
Expertise of building no. 146
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Vera Shehu worked for years in her business, in an aesthetic center. The only notification that he recently received from the Municipality of Tirana was the notification of the demolition of the building where he conducted his business, on January 25 of this year.
Photo before and after the collapse of the business
" I only had official communication from the Municipality of Tirana on January 20 of this year, when I received the decision to close my business, "aesthetic center". The announcement was today for tomorrow! Where would I go in such a short time?! I talked to them and asked them for at least 2-3 days to vacate the business. I inquired with Unit No. 6 here at Kombinat about what will happen to my business. I have not received any concrete answer. They tell us that we do not have a decision for businesses. They raise their arms up and look at us with pity. We do not know where to go and what to do. Here, this is the situation ", - says Vera Shehu.
Some of the residents are still unclear, if the reconstruction will be done in the place where it was. Some are aware that they will be moved to the Textile Factory, but the lack of information remains a constant concern.
The Albanian Center for Quality Journalism addressed the Municipality of Tirana through an official request for the reconstruction process, to learn the beginning and end of the works in this area.
"The General Directorate of Public Works is not managing works for the reconstruction of the houses damaged by the earthquake of 26.11.2019, in the Kombinat area. In Administrative Unit no. 6, following the process of reconstruction and housing for families in need, a new area is being built in Kombinat, which includes parts of the urban, suburban and rural environment of the territory, which guarantee sustainable development and suitable housing for the residents of affected by natural disasters. In contrast to the existing housing, damaged by the earthquake of November 26, 2019, the new neighborhood aims, not only to house the residents, but also to regulate the social life of the residents, who lost their homes due to the earthquake."
Meanwhile, on 06.10.2021 the government made a decision "On the expropriation and temporary use of property - private property - for public interest" in the Kombinat area.
For this, the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism addressed the Municipality of Tirana with a request for information, where the public interest lies and the expropriation of residents in the Kombinat area, but until this moment of publishing this observation, there has been no response.
Currently, in the Kombinat area there are 1443 families on the forms of those affected by the earthquake: " 1443 application forms have been forwarded to the Directorate of Social Housing by Administrative Unit No. 6, of which 1402 are beneficiaries by decisions of the Municipal Council and 1187 families are currently being treated with rent payments ."
Asked about the funds available for reconstruction in this area, the Municipality of Tirana responded: " The Fund for the Reconstruction of Collapsed Housing is a fund allocated by the Ministry of Reconstruction and the entire allocated reconstruction fund is intended for the reconstruction of housing, which includes the construction of schools; the grant allocated as a rental payment for families whose houses have been destroyed; the construction of individual housing, etc. In total, the fund allocated so far to the Municipality of Tirana as a reconstruction fund is 13,393,783,194 lekë ."
The Minister of Reconstruction, Arben Ahmetaj, has given various deadlines for the completion of the "consequences of the earthquake". On March 16, 2021, Ahmetaj stated: " Reconstruction is progressing rapidly. We will keep our promise that in the spring of 2022 there will be no sign of the damage from the November 26 earthquake ."
At least in the Kombinati area, it will be difficult to keep this promise. The process of rebuilding the demolished houses has not yet started there. In the government program it is said that in the spring of 2022 there will be no trace of the earthquake.
