Following an investment of the Albanian government, a thousand residents from Malësia e Madhe to the Municipality of Rrethina will be supplied with water around the clock.

The aqueduct of Gruemirë was a facility with no standards and extremely filthy covered by thorns. After reconstruction works, its capacity has increased by 8 times.

Director of the water supply system in Gruemirë Flaurs Shoshi, who has been running the company for 9 years, informed that the interventions made have significantly improved the situation of drinking water supply, also for municipalities that have suffered water shortage for years, including here the tourist area of Velipojë. The amount of water supplied to residents has increased by 8 times. “4 thousand cubic meters in their full capacity used to supply up to 500 cubic meter of water to 2 thousand inhabitants only in the lower area. While today’s capacities provide water to 20 thousand inhabitants. We have also supplied a part of the municipality of Rrethinaj, which has 32 thousand inhabitants, and thus the amount of water has increased by 8 times” – he said.

Prime Minister Rama considered the investment as very important and strategic for this area. “Finally, we could intervene in the area of Malësia e Madhe after 40 years. It had turned into a ruin and the lack of investments has prevented 1/3 of its residents to have drinkable water. We have intervened and totally inverted the situation, because we succeeded not only to bring water to the homes of all residents of this area who suffered from the lack of water until yesterday, but we succeeded also to say that in the coming tourist season Velipoja will be fully supplied with drinkable water, something it could never imagine”.

The Prime Minister noted that a strengthened relation between the central and local government is very important in order to actualize such works. “These are the right steps in the right direction and for this reason I strongly believe it is very important to strengthen the relation between the central and local government, because now large municipalities are completely different realities and need this relation. Meanwhile, we need to move forward in the right direction but the people of Malësia e Madhe, the people Shkodra, the people of this region should help us by choosing our candidates as their leaders, by choosing the people we have chosen not to do politics but to manage a colossal challenge like the one of the implementation of the administrative-territorial reform. Water supply is a very important strategic part of all this, because water has been lacking for so many years whether as drinkable water or as water for the irrigation of lands, and still to this today the area needs a responsible administration at the local level.”

The Prime Minister said that reform of the water system, designed with foreign and domestic expertise, is towards completion and will soon become a reality. “The reform on water system, prepared by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, in cooperation with international and the best domestic expertise, is almost completed after an intensive work during the first 18 months of government, and now we need to make it a reality. I believe that the example of the department of water and of the absolute manager we have here, along with the example of coordination between the MP, the ministry and the government has enabled us to have a model of success that we can share across the territory of Albania, and everybody can see that water around a clock, which is a commitment of ours, is not only possible but it is starting to become a reality in a very short time, in a difficult area, and it will become a reality in every area, until this problem is solved once and for all throughout the country. What’s the point of living in an area like this, full of springs from which water flows down, and not be able to use them for over 20 years? The only thing we need is a vision and the will to manage these resources. I believe this is the major change of our government, and the vision and the will – of which we are not lacking – will continue to give us results as the one we have today.”