Fire at the waste landfill: the story of a recurring environmental disaster
By Esmeralda Topi and Atdhe Mulla
As soon as you exit the Elbasan tunnel, you are not welcomed by the city’s view or the breeze of the Shkumbin River. Instead, a thick wall of smoke greets you, entering your lungs before you can even say ‘good morning’.
Columns of smoke, like a poisonous curtain, cover every corner of the city. It looks like a scene from a disaster movie, but in Elbasan, it has become a repeated reality.
At the waste landfill near the Shkumbin River, fire has erupted again. Along with it, what residents call the ‘annual hell’ returns, a hell that burns, suffocates, and pollutes, while above the garbage stands silently the heavily advertised incinerator that, in reality, does not burn the waste.
Ahmet Mehmeti, one of the few voices still brave enough to speak out about pollution in Elbasan, describes the situation bluntly: ‘Yesterday, the entire city was quarantined, but not because of a virus. Because of the smoke. You couldn’t breathe’, he told Faktoje.al.
According to Mehmeti, the fires at the landfill are no accident but the result of a policy that favors incineration on paper and primitive burning on the ground.
‘The thief is on the ground, don’t look for him in the air’, he ironically says. ‘Until politics understands that waste management is not done with speeches but with real recycling, we will keep breathing this smoke every year’.
‘Until politics understands that waste management is not done with speeches but with real recycling, we will keep breathing this smoke every year’.
Beside the burning garbage site stands the famous incinerator, once a symbol of promises for a ‘European standard’, but now more like a prop in a political play.
In April 2017, Prime Minister Rama inaugurated this facility with great ceremony, declaring an end to open-air garbage burning.
‘From a field of garbage burning openly in the sky, poisoning the entire city, to a sanitary site meeting European standards where waste is used for energy production’, Rama said eight years ago.
Eight years later, the scene remains the same: the smoke is just as toxic, and the promised energy production vanished along with trust in the institutions.
The irony peaks knowing that the prime minister himself was in Cërrik, just a few kilometers away, attending a meeting focused on… agriculture. He probably couldn’t avoid seeing the smoke, and he certainly couldn’t escape the smell. He may even have recalled the incinerator’s inauguration.
In Cërrik, there is silence. Not a single word about the environmental catastrophe capturing Elbasan and the surrounding area.
At the waste landfill, two fire trucks with their engines constantly running struggled to keep the fire under control, drawing water from the Shkumbin River. This Wednesday, the smoke had shifted course, moving from Elbasan toward Cërrik, as if to remind the government of the bitter failure in waste management.
A few kilometers further, in the village of Bujqës, residents lived under thick clouds of smoke and unbearable odors. Even though we wore masks, the burning sensation in our airways was intense.
‘They made us sick’, said Nazmi Pisha, a local resident who met us at his home’s gate. His 15-month-old nephew had vomited all night due to the smoke penetrating even through closed windows.
‘My child nearly burst; he didn’t stop all night’, said Lije Pisha, the worried mother of the little boy.
‘We can’t stay outside or inside’, the Pisha family members complained in unison.
‘My child nearly burst; he didn’t stop all night’, said Lije Pisha, the worried mother of the little boy.
What do the authorities say?
The Ministry of Defense reported this Wednesday that the fire hotspots at the waste landfill in Elbasan municipality remain active despite numerous efforts to contain them.
Efforts continue with 3 fire trucks and 15 personnel from Elbasan municipality, 2 vehicles with 10 personnel, and a tractor equipped with chains from the Armed Forces. Additionally, 3 more fire trucks from other municipalities are expected to arrive.
Meanwhile, Leli Kaja, the administrator of EcoElb (the public company managing the landfill), said the situation was calmer this Wednesday.
‘We are bringing the fire under control. There are some small internal spots still emitting smoke, and we are handling those. There is no need for aerial intervention’, he told Faktoje.al briefly.
Elbasan, the most polluted city after Tirana
After Tirana, Elbasan is considered Albania’s most polluted city, with high levels of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), pollutants that cause serious health problems and environmental damage.
According to recent monitoring, PM10 particle levels exceed permitted limits by 19.6%, ranking Elbasan among the most problematic cities in terms of air quality.
At the same time, INSTAT data indicate an increase in deaths in 2024, mainly due to tumors, blood disorders, and cardiovascular diseases, with environmental factors like air pollution and waste burning playing a significant role.
Today in Elbasan, smoke has covered everything: fields, roads, homes, children. Only one thing seems thicker than the smoke: the silence of the authorities.
Firefighters fight the fires, citizens battle illnesses, while politicians struggle with memory, a memory sometimes covered by recycled promises and sometimes by smoke.
But in this city, smoke does not disappear with propaganda, and incinerators do not function through inauguration photos and videos. Until then, Elbasan will remain where it is: surrounded by fire, pollution, and indifference.
