The mayor of the Kosovo capital Pristina, Parparim Rama, declared a state of emergency today in the territory of the capital municipality in connection with waste management, the Albanian edition of Radio Free Europe reported, BTA reported.
At a press conference in the capital, he said that the regional public company "Pastrimi" (ʿCleaningʾ, ʿpurityʾ in Albanian – ed. note), which is currently the only company engaged in waste collection in Pristina, has not proven to be effective in carrying out this task.
“We will continue to use the state of emergency that 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 to collect waste in the capital, the media recalls.
According to Mayor Rama, however, opposition representatives in the municipal parliament 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 “Pastrimi” company is a local public enterprise with about 900 employees, which provides waste collection services to several cities in Kosovo, including Pristina. The director of public services in Pristina, 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 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 gone on strike over working conditions and low wages, Radio Free Europe recalls.