The mayor of the Kosovo capital Pristina, Parparim Rama, declared a state of emergency in the capital municipality today regarding waste management, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Albanian edition reported.
At a press conference in the capital, he said that the regional public company "Pastrìmi" (ʿCleaningʾ, ʿcleanlinessʾ in Albanian - ed. note), which is currently the only company dealing with waste collection in Pristina, has not proven to be effective in carrying out this task.
“We will continue to use the state of emergency we declared to engage private companies to help properly clean the capital“, Rama said.
In 2024 The municipality of Pristina also declared a state of emergency and temporarily engaged additional private operators for waste collection in the capital, the media outlet recalls.
According to Mayor Rama, however, opposition representatives in the municipal parliament have made an impossible longer-term commitment by approving a regulation that "gives the company "Pastrimi" the exclusive right for this service."
Also in 2024, workers of "Pastrimi" complained and protested before the municipality against the engagement of private companies, which they believe poses a risk of bankruptcy for their company.
The company "Pastrimi" is a local public enterprise with around 900 employees that provides waste collection services to several cities in Kosovo, including Pristina.
Pristina Public Services Director Bekim Brestovci said that the current "excessively deteriorated" situation has forced them to declare a state of emergency again.
“The company “Pastrimi”, with the logistics it had, was unable to provide citizens with either containers or the appropriate mechanism for waste disposal”, he stressed.
According to the municipality, a team set up by the Directorate of Public Services inspected the site and "found a worrying situation, with a high risk of spreading epidemics".
Workers in public enterprises dealing with waste management in Kosovo have often protested and even held strikes over working conditions and low wages, Radio Free Europe recalls.