The reconstruction sites in the town of Kavaje, one of the areas worst hit by the powerful earthquake two years ago, have now given way to modern residential complexes with the newly-built apartment blocks marking the start of a new life for the families that lost their homes in the devastating tremor.
The new apartment complex, the second to be built in the town of Kavaje, is ready to welcome 206 families that will move into safer, more resilient, more beautiful and comfortable homes built according to contemporary standards for construction. An initial group of 153 quake-affected families moved into their new homes at the end of last year.
Prime Minister Edi Rama joined Kavaja residents in a ceremony as the new housing units were handed over to the families that lost their dwellings in the devastating earthquake that hit Albania in November 2019. “The Reconstruction Programme has served everyone, without distinction of any kind. Today, these homes are not only real, but you are all entitled to obtaining property ownership certificates for free,” the government head told local residents.
The Premier visited several new houses. He noted that a lot remains to be done to rehabilitate infrastructure of new residential neighbourhoods, saying that ample space is available at these sites to build sports grounds for young people, as well as recreational facilities and friendly environments for children and older people.
During his visit to the municipality of Kavaje, the government head, accompanied by Kavaje Mayor Redjan Krali, toured the neighbourhood No 5 to closely inspect completion of work on the area’s urban requalification.
The sewerage infrastructure was totally rehabilitated in the residential complex, while a newly-built 8-km road integrates the area with the town’s new ring road.
A total of 11 new educational facilities, including a dormitory in Golem, three kindergartens have been built under the reconstruction programme in Kavaje.
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Remarks by Prime Minister Edi Rama at inauguration ceremony of second apartment block for 206 quake-affected families in the municipality of Kavaje.
Hello everyone!
It is a pleasure to visit these areas, neighbourhoods and new development sites, after so much hard work and challenges and finally hand over the keys to all these families and to many who rightly were sceptical and suspicious about all this at the very beginning and perhaps some of them still are as they still unsure whether what they are seeing is real. There is no reason at all for you to worry about as your door locks are safe. This is a programme that has served everyone, without distinction of any kind, with us looking neither right nor left, just straight ahead, joining forces and uniting all people in new resilient communities.
Today we are actually inaugurating a second area of the new residential neighbourhood. Mayor has a lot more to do in order to rehabilitate that part of the site here to build sports grounds for kids and young people. The site also offers ample space to build a child-friendly facilities and outdoor venues, as well as recreational spaces for old people, when they accompany their nieces and nephews in their afternoon walk, so that local residents engage in an active community life, regardless of everything you might differ on, regardless of your political affiliations and who you vote for on the election day, which is a single day and we live and share together same woes and troubles during the four days after that election day.
The earthquake befell everyone as an extreme natural disaster, leaving thousands of families homeless in just a few seconds. You were unfortunately among those who lost their dwellings and definitely can recall the horror, the anxiety and the feeling of insecurity, loss and hopelessness you have all experienced at those very moments, when it felt everything was over and when everyone was wondering: “Would we be able ever again to build a new house from scratch?” Meanwhile, quite a few or even nobody ever believed that not only the new foundations were laid and your homes were built from scratch, but also all of those who lost their dwellings were to move into much stronger, safer and more beautiful homes and live in such communities.
I have visited some of you in your previous inhabitable homes together with the Mayor and the Minister of Reconstruction. I remember quite well the faces of the shocked and hopeless people we met. None of them did believe they would have a new house again.
But not only these houses are real ones, not only these residents now sitting in the balconies of their new homes are real people, but all these properties are now yours and totally for free.
None of the beneficiaries shall owe any payment, since everything has been already paid and has been built specifically for you and your families to enjoy your new homes.
I notice that anytime we go through such moments, undoubtedly the most beautiful in a life like mine dedicated to politics during this period, because these are the moments when one feels the politics is worth it and not much can happen and be delivered without the politics.
In the meantime, many reprimand us for attending such inauguration ceremonies, saying “it were not you the ones to build these homes. All the reconstruction projects were funded by the international donors that have allocated funds that you have already stolen.”
The truth is that construction of these houses you see here and all the new dwellings built to date everywhere else, be them either single-family homes, residential buildings or residential complexes, except for the 500 housing units in the town of Lac, has been totally funded by the Albanian state budget!
It is true we received significant support at the International Donors’ Conference, yet it is equally true that the international donors’ pledges are not transferred directly to us, but international donors manage their funds. The European Union was the biggest donor, which is now supporting the second phase of the schools reconstruction programme. The EU manages its taxpayers’ money, while the government of Albania and its state budget have totally funded the first phase of school reconstruction in the quake-hit areas.
A number of other projects funded by the international donors are underway, including the new water supply system in Durres, projects on rehabilitation of the cultural heritage sites, as well as the project on construction of the apartments block in Spitalle, the new residential complex in Durres funded by the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates. However, the truth is that the Albanian state budget has totally funded the rest of projects on construction of new houses and residential complexes for the quake-affected families. Why? Because the international donors, first of all, do not fund construction of houses, except for the President of the Republic of Turkey and the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, two dear and precious friends that stood by us, pledged their help and they are delivering on their pledges, with one of the projects now complete and the other already underway.
No other funds have been provided by the international donors for construction of new homes. Construction of all new houses for the quake-hit families has been an obligation of the Albanian government and we are totally committed to fully delivering on this obligation. However, this is not the problem. The only problem in this whole story is that we couldn’t afford letting people homeless while waiting for all the relevant procedures to complete and the long time such a process would take to complete according to the rules applied by the international partners. This is the reason the government allocated state budget funds and that’s why we succeeded in building and providing new housing for all these families in record time. And I want to put emphasis on this; it happened in a record time.
You know it quite well and it is pretty clear to everyone that under a contract with a private developer, constructing a residential building on your land plot or property would take at least two years. You stood no chance of moving into a new house earlier as the construction project certainly takes time.
However, it is completely different when a construction programme for the quake-affected families is launched by the state. Fortunately enough, each and every one of you has a family member, relatives and neighbours living and working in Italy and you can ask them about the plight of quake-affected families that had to live in caravans for 10, 12 or 15 years and there are families still waiting to move into their new homes.
Italy is a big and powerful country, whereas Albania is neither so big nor so strong, but Albania has a small population and this is because we won’t let anyone wait neither 10 nor 15 years for them to return home and therefore we did this in record time. I am very proud of that. And one should not forget that the pandemic gripped the country during this period and it forced us to temporarily suspend the construction projects and shut down the construction sites, forced us to shut down offices and impose a total lockdown. However, we kept working and delivering on these projects.
The country was hit by a powerful earthquake, by a deadly pandemic, but as if that weren’t enough, Albania is now gripped by another crisis, namely a severe electricity crisis coupled with an ongoing war in Europe and nobody had ever thought that in 2022 Europe could once again become a war arena similar to the ones the continent went through in the 30’s. The impact of war is sending shockwaves to a strongly interconnected global economy.
Albania, a country in Europe, is affected, as well as Australia, a country on the other side of the world and even after this crisis, we will be stronger, we will be better off, but we will have to face them all together and united over the facts and not by creating alternative facts and fight by resorting to the real facts.
This is a crisis we didn’t cause and we didn’t choose. This is not also a war we triggered nor can we stop it.
We will cope with the crisis just like we did with the earthquake. Here we are today. All the woes, hardship and distress you went through is ending today and today you are moving into houses that you wouldn’t be able to build if you were to decide and keep living in your old dwellings that sustained major structural damages due to the earthquake. The day will also come when we will emerge stronger and better from the ongoing crisis that we need to deal with together and united.
The government will continue to support every family in order for the shock of this crisis not to hit them. We will support every family to prevent the electricity crisis from hitting their household economy.
We have assumed this commitment when the war was yet to emerge on the horizon, but it was just the start of an electricity crisis that has hit everyone. The war started and the energy crisis deteriorated as the two countries involved in a war following Russian aggression are rich in main natural resources and are main raw material suppliers to Europe and to a wider region, including energy, oil, gas, agricultural inputs etc. And of course, breaking that chain causes many disruptions. “However, even today I am telling you that although the difficulties increase every day for us to keep things going, we will continue to subsidize from the state budget the difference of the energy bill for each family. And this is very important and everyone should be aware of this, to understand that if they pay for energy today the same way they paid for it before the crunch, it does not mean that energy costs the same. “No, it costs three, four, five times as much a month, and the rest is paid by the government, so that at least on this side, pensioners are not hit, pensioners do not have cars, people with special needs do not have four wheel drive vehicles.
More than a half a million people are in need and they are not environment polluters as they don’t own cars. There are a countless number of commuters who use public transportation to go to work and travel by bus from one city to another. There is no reason for them to share the burden of the increased transportation fares, the increased electricity bill in their homes and this is the reason why we will pay every single cent to make sure that they keep travelling by bus and their ticket price doesn’t increase. We will provide compensation for this.
The government will also continue to support farmers by allocating additional funding as part of the tax-free oil for farmers across the country. We will continue to support all these categories, but the government won’t be able to fight and deal with this crisis alone and without sharing it with the whole society.
Those who can afford driving cars and four-wheel driving vehicles have to assume a heavier burden, a bit heavier and not a lot heavier than others, because, just like everyone else, their electricity bill is not increased. But if we were to remove taxes on oil we wouldn’t be able to deliver on none of these commitments.
And this wouldn’t be fair. How on earth are we supposed to tell retired people to share a part of the burden and pay more in electricity bills, just because car owners are buying oil at a higher price? We can’t ask them to do so. We know it is not nice at all, it is not good news for those who pay more to buy oil, yet they will pay because this is the way the responsibility is shared with the government assuming the biggest responsibility by allocating the largest amount of funding ever provided to prevent the electricity price from increasing.
So, I wish you all to enjoy your new homes! Of course, the electricity price is not increased, but this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to switch your lights off during the night time, as everyone should try and save power and I urge everyone to do their share so that we can deal with this crisis together. I am fully confident we will cope with this crisis, just like we have already done.
Thank you!
