"The waste is there in those 102 large containers, not even 200 meters from the apartments, at first we reacted, now we've gotten used to the poison," says Fatmir, a resident of the "Rinia" neighborhood, an urban area between industrial Porto Romano and Shën Avlash, almost giving up.
It took the Durrës Prosecutor's Office a full year to realize that there is no laboratory in Albania certified to conduct analyses of 2,100 tons of suspected hazardous waste.
The day before (October 9), experts took samples from 102 containers and sent them to a laboratory in Italy, now awaiting the official response.
In a year of investigation, not a single person has been charged, while whistleblowers in this case, the international environmental organization BAN and its director Jim Puckett, have been "excluded" from the investigation.
The game with laboratories
With the launch of the investigation in October last year, the Durrës Prosecutor's Office, as a first step, asked three state institutions, the National Agency for Natural Resources, the Faculty of Geology and Mining and the Faculty of Natural Sciences, to take samples from these containers and conduct analyses to determine whether the waste was toxic, or "iron oxide" as presented in the documentation by the transportation company "Sokolaj shpk".
reaction
The response was not surprising, as all three of these institutions returned an official response to the Durrës Prosecutor's Office stating that they had neither laboratories nor experts to conduct this expertise.
Faktoje.al, in an extended publication a few months ago, raised precisely this concern about the lack of specific laboratories for analyzing toxic waste. In March of this year, the prosecution institution in Durres expressed optimism that the issue would be resolved quickly. “Currently, a laboratory has been identified that meets and has the infrastructure to guarantee compliance with all international protocols and standards, and very soon the collection and analysis of samples will be proceeded with,” the Durres Prosecution Office officially stated.
progress
But what happened? Six months later, he surrendered again and after a full year of wandering around looking for laboratories that do not exist in Albania, he decided to have the expertise carried out in Italy.
Iron Oxide or EAFD?
The international environmental organization “Basel Action Network” (BAN) based in Seattle, United States, raised concerns that tons of hazardous waste were hidden on the ship “Molivia” that departed from Albania on July 4, 2024 via the Port of Durres. The waste is suspected to have been obtained from the dust of the furnaces of the Kurum company in Elbasan, which operates in the field of processing scrap for iron production.
BAN received information that this ship, along with (Iron Oxide), was transporting EAFD.
The EAFD component is a material that comes from the recycling of steel scrap and contains toxic metal oxides, such as (Cadmium and Chromium), which are considered harmful to health and the environment, which forced the host country Thailand to turn back the waste, returning the ship to Durrës on September 28 of last year.
DOCUMENTATION
The shipping company "Sokolaj shpk", in the accompanying documentation, specified that the cargo was "Iron Oxide", but the suspicions of "Basel Action Network" remain that the containers holding 2100 tons of material contain hazardous EAFD waste.
The accusers refused.
BAN Executive Director Jim Puckett came to Albania and offered to participate in every process of transporting and analyzing suspected toxic waste, but encountered an "insurmountable" difficulty; the Durrës Prosecutor's Office, although they officially stated that they were inviting BAN to present any evidence and documentation.
"In the context of this criminal proceeding, Basel Action Network and Mileukontakt Albania, represented by Jim Puckett, addressed the Durrës Prosecutor's Office via email requesting to be questioned as a witness and to participate as an expert and observer during the sampling and analysis process," the prosecution announced in March of this year.
Faktoje.al learns that the prosecution institution has refused to receive the testimony and documentation that BAN has. "The written deposition of Mr. Puckett and BAN has not been taken into administration by the Durrës Prosecution. The claim they raised was that it is not provided for in the investigative procedure," said Valbona Mazreku, executive director of "Mileukontakt Albania" for Faktoje.al.
Debris in the middle of the field
In the eastern part of the Porto Romano industrial area, there are still 102 containers suspected of containing toxic waste.
Initially, the facility was used for vehicles seized by the Durrës Police, but after the decision to locate it there, a complete perimeter was established and it is guarded 24 hours a day by a State Police patrol.
"They've been there for a year, we don't know anything about what's going on, it's a problem and we're scared," says a young man, a vendor at a nearby market.
The area is lagoonal and any possible leakage and decomposition from long-term storage in the containers could pose a risk both to soil and groundwater contamination, but also directly to residents whose homes are no more than 200 meters away. Anxiety for residents of the area where the containers are located remains pending the final results of the analyses./ Fact
