Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the ceremony at the Port of Durres where the new fleet of excavators was submitted to local governments:

 

Allow me to provide some historical data, actually unbelievable, that show where we are in a moment of great importance, and that this new fleet is an unthinkable and unimaginable novelty.

Since 1993, when the first investment for logistics supporting agriculture was made, until 2001, when investments in this direction stopped completely, 56 excavators were brought in Albania for agriculture, 16 of which were out of use. Some others were brought after many years of service, hence, after they had “retired” in the countries of origin. The average age of the fleet we inherited was 21 years old. No excavator entered Albania from 2001 until when the Ministry of Agriculture received 10 new long-arm excavators and made them available to regional drainage boards.

The Minister of Agriculture first, and then everyone else involved in this sector know very well what it had to be removed to meet the needs in case of flooding, and nobody would dare to clear canals throughout the territory because it was a mission impossible.

There are practically 61 excavators, which, added to the 10 excavators that are already at work on water pathways for agriculture, make 71. In just 2 years, not only we made available to farmers, municipalities and to the sector 31 excavators more than those provided from 1993 to 2014, which were in addition brand new so that they could perform with the maximum quality.

If in almost a quarter of a century there were only 40 used excavators across Albania, and they could hardly “breathe” when they started to work, the 61-excavator fleet, which is exclusive for the local government, will suffice for this phase.

Our intention is that the new municipalities can create with these tools the nucleus of companies for the cleaning and systematic maintenance of irrigation and drainage canals, so that we won’t have anymore, not thousands of kilometres, but any meter irrigation and drainage canal blocked by soil, fertilizers, inert, and all the sediments which were practically thousands, and when I say thousands I don’t exaggerate.

Only in 2016, thanks to this work jointly organized, by implementing a reform that is the basis of the success we want and will do in the countryside with the Ministry of Agriculture, with the drainage boards and with municipalities, we have removed from the canals that were supposed to take water to the lands where tens of thousands of families across the territory live, 3.5 million cubic meters of soil, waste, inert sediments, which had left without work and hopeless tens of thousands of families from north to south Albania, just because of water.

All this is an extraordinary work, not only to avoid the stress about water that has accompanied farmers from season to season, but also to significantly facilitate families in rural or suburban areas, even in city centres, when lands were flooded due to the blockage of the arteries, so that water can flow across the country. A work based on the facts, on an analysis made with the Minister, and having before our eyes the map of all these arteries.

Hadn’t we cleared more than 2 thousand kilometres of canals, only through the municipalities – without taking account of the work done with the pathways by the Drainage Board, which were blocked and where work continues on an important pathway in the area of Vau i Dejes that caused flooding after every dew – this winter would have been terrible in terms of flooding.

The floods we had were minimal compared to what it could have happened. We were all witnesses, but particularly the Mayor of Vlora, the mayors in the basin Vjosa and the mayor of Fier, what floods we had two years ago. Considering the rainfall of last year, hadn’t this work been done, the flooding of two years ago would have seemed a joke in relation to what we would have seen across the area, and to how many more families would have been affected in terms of property.

There is another very important element. As I said, we have removed 3.5 million cubic meters of waste, soil, aggregates and sediments over this operation only. The objective is to have per year an immediate clearing capacity of 7-10 million cubic meters from Tropoje to Konispol, anywhere there is a farming family living off the land.

The operation is not over. We still have much work to do at this stage. I’m very happy that both I and the Minister will get finally rid of calls, messages, e-mails, letters, alarms by the mayor who very rightly demanded excavators, because now time has come to prepare for next season.

The Mayor of Berat brought the example of the 300 hectares that have been normally irrigated for the first time in one area of Berat, not across Berat. How can our economy, our country afford the luxury to have tens of thousands of hectares out of use? And this due to the lack of a natural component which we have in abundance: water. But also due to the fact that until this government engaged to enter the path of rural and agriculture Renaissance, nobody cared to clear canals in over 20 years.

There are 40 thousand hectares that have been put underwater, thus relieving a large number of farming families. Our ambition, our objective not to have any longer any parcel without water and where drainage is not guaranteed, will be met within this year.

Could such a thing be imagined until 3-something years ago, taking into account the history of the last 20-something years? Could such a thing be imagined until 3-something years ago, if we referred to just a figure? – In financial terms this operation is 3 times larger than the funding made by the previous government in this sector in 4 years taken together, from 2009 to 2013.

But if it is three times larger in terms of funds, it is 30 times larger in terms of efficiency. We haven’t distributed money in order to mend everywhere by transferring the money to the enterprises or to the third parties for a few metres here and there, but we have made an analytical study with the Ministry of Agriculture. We have seen all of the arteries, we have seen where the resources are, where the pathways are, where the second and third canals are, what relation is there between those that are functional and those that are blocked, and what is required to liberate them from sediments, in order for farmers and economy to benefit at maximum from this operation.

The administrative and territorial reform is a reform for economy, in addition to being a reform to make statehood. Instead of 400 local units that were left adrift, today we have a second level of government that is compact and gives us the opportunity to create 60 economic units, instead of the old municipalities that simply survived, just like the beggars in the streets.

What we are doing today is the continuation of a road that still needs a lot of work to be paved, where the results are most felt by farmers who were affected by drought until yesterday, and were forced to abandon their homes. But very soon these results will be felt by the economy and the market that will show them, as it has already started to show. We have an exponential increase in exports, which has been certainly influenced also by this aspect. We have a growing presence of local products in our market, in relation to imported products, but the potential is extraordinary. If we compare ourselves with 3 and a half years ago, there is nothing to compare, but if we refer to the potential, I am completely satisfied and we should all be satisfied because we have an inexhaustible opportunity to transform the countryside and give economy a strong boost through agriculture.

We will distribute the new excavators, we will further supported the process of a reform that aims to strengthen the second level of governance in this vital sector, we will encourage municipalities to create their own enterprises for the clearing and maintenance of canals, until yesterday carried out by firms, with tenders, etc. Today, they can be easily made by local units that have the tools and a much smaller outlay. In doing so they facilitate the state budget to empower the support to new policies we have undertaken in this sector. Of course, this connection between the Ministry of Agriculture and local stakeholders will be repealed thus alleviating a big burden that has accompanied the state and sector for quarter of a century. For this fleet is certainly costly, but in relation to the benefit, it is an expenditure that the state should have done 20, 15 or even 10 years ago.

We have wasted all these years, and when I hear them talk nonsense and show us the suffering of farmers – as if it was us who caused it – and it is the last straw having the finger at us pointed by those who are the creators of those serious wounds. We will focus on our work and will continue to make statehood by strengthening institutions. In this case, by empowering step by step an institution key to development, such as the municipality. By having the government increasingly focused on politics, and municipalities increasingly focused on a direct support to the community in the city or countryside. In this harmony and synchrony, we receive much more substantial results in terms of quantity and quality in this sector, which is a strategic sector for Albania and a strategic priority for our government.

Good luck to all mayors! Thanks to all those who worked on this project and allowed this moment, and alleviated us at least one burden that was increasingly heavy due to the daily and natural insistence of the mayors. I know you will keep asking. Being a mayor means to ask constantly and never be happy with the government, but at least we have arranged as a basis this very important aspect for the mayors, who belong to the first generation of the reform, and found themselves with arms up and without any tool in front of community as large as the community of rural areas.  Of course, a lot remains still to be done to strengthen this base.

Thank you!