The residents accuse "Feronikeli" for the dead fish in the Drenica river, the institutions without information

On the morning of May 25, Gani Hoti went for a walk along the banks of the Drenica River in the village of Čikatovo e Vjetër in Drenas, but what he saw were dead fish. I blame their death on the pollution caused by the "Ferronickel" factory.

The Municipality of Drenas and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment have also been notified of this. But they say they still don't know the cause of the fish's death.

The water protection inspector at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, Elbasan Shala, said that they went to the field and took samples to have a clearer picture of the pollution in this river. Their results are still pending, KOHA reports.

"During this inspection, we did not notice any particular pollution, apart from water discharges from households, however we took five water samples which were sent to IHMK for analysis, and based on the results we will act further. These are only assumptions, therefore we have taken a significant number of samples to have a clearer picture of the pollution in this river. We also took samples at the location where the water is discharged from NEW Co Feronikeli LLC, so we will wait for the results to act", said Shala.

KOHA has tried to contact the representatives of "Ferronikel" regarding the residents' claims, but they have not responded.

The Deputy Minister of the Environment, Avni Zogiani, says that the first suspicions are that the death of the fish happened because of the works without expertise in the river beds.

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"In the last three years, 60 million euros have been spent on such interventions, which have only caused damage. It is a scandal that I think the Prosecutor's Office should be engaged in investigations on how decisions were made for such expenses, which have only caused serious damage to the waters, namely to the rivers", said Zogiani.

But the resident Gani Hoti has no doubts that the discharges from "Ferronikeli" are the cause of the pollution. He separately complains to the Municipality of Drenas that instead of disciplining the company for the degree of pollution, they rewarded it with gratitude for investments in the environment.