Residents complain about delays in the construction of houses in the north

The construction of houses in the northern part of Kosovo is not going as the residents expected. Although they express satisfaction with the possibility of returning to their properties from which they were forced to leave immediately after the war, some residents in North Mitrovica complain about delays in works and lack of infrastructure.

For about a year, Arben Rexhepi has been waiting for the completion of the construction of the house and with it the return to his property in "Miners' Hill" in the north of Mitrovica.

He says that the works that are close to completion should have been done much earlier.

"..mostly they came and worked for one week, two weeks they stopped working, after 1 month they started again... so far the weather has been good and the house was finished", said Rexhepi.

However, this resident is satisfied with the work that has been done and says that together with other family members he will return from the south to live in the property in the north, from which he was forced to leave immediately after the war.

"For 22 years, I've been moving around a bit, but I haven't been to the north that often. I don't have a reason for what comes next, I don't have a home first. Since the house was built, I always come to look at the house 5 times a week, even if there is no one to work, but I enjoy coming to look," he added.

Ramadan Istrefi does not have Rexhepi's fate either. Although he says he is a beneficiary of the government's housing project in the north, work on his property has yet to begin.

The house in which he lived until March 1999, according to Istrefi, was a school for dozens of Albanian students and also a meeting point for political representatives, during the occupation by Serbia.

He criticizes the Government of Kosovo for not coordinating with the residents of the north and for delaying the process of building houses.

"I haven't owned this house for a year or a year and a half, I've owned this house for 25 years." I've never been able to work, but you think I'll go out to my house. Even for us, what we are, what we have, the burnt houses here, is a very big burden, we have been in foreign houses for thousands of years, since we have had them for thousands of years. Even today, the conditions have been created, there are tools... but the work is progressing slowly. Where is the fault, I don't know?...for me, it is a wish that all these 10 houses returned to me at once, when these people see our kojshi, how we got out of our house, they speak differently, they speak better", said Istrefi.

On the other hand, Betim Osmani, who is from the Civic Initiative "Mitrovica", says that despite all the calls for return, there is no strategy for such a thing.

According to him, besides the project being developed slowly, the houses built in the north lack the necessary infrastructure for the return of residents.

"In this neighborhood alone, 76 houses are burned somewhere, in 2023, the construction of 8 houses began, most of them are roofs. The infrastructure is not ready, there is not even a normal road for access to the backyard and 7 of these do not have access to drinking water or sewage," said Osmani.

According to the data provided by KOHA from its sources, 129 houses have been built or are in the process of being built in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo, of which 39 are in North Mitrovica.

However, the Ministry of Local Government did not indicate how many of them have been inhabited.