Ferizaj with tunnels for cars and dry taps for citizens

The geographical position, between the two capitals, Pristina and Skopje, has given Ferizaj the advantage to develop as an important hub for the circulation of people and goods. But this rapid development has been accompanied by challenges in planning and infrastructure. Beyond the development of millions of investments from the public sector and private companies, the citizens of the Municipality with 109 thousand inhabitants also face very basic problems, such as the lack of water

Cars with license plates 05 circulate through the city both above and below ground. To travel from east to west, they must dive into underground tunnels to avoid the railway that divides the city in two. But once they surface again, they face another challenge, a landscape overcrowded with multi-story buildings, often without order or distance, built on a development plan that has now been overturned by the court.

Amidst the underground passages and the thirst for high-rise construction, stands Ferizaj, the second largest city in Kosovo, which in recent years has changed more than any other municipality in appearance and volume.

Its geographical position, between the two capitals, Pristina and Skopje, has given the municipality the advantage to develop as an important hub for the movement of people and goods. But this rapid urban development, driven more by dynamics than direction, has been accompanied by challenges in planning and infrastructure.

Beyond the development of millions of investments from both the public sector and private companies, the citizens of the Municipality with 109 thousand inhabitants also face very basic problems, such as the lack of water.

Fatime Zymberi lives in this city. She mentions the lack of water as a problem that haunts her throughout the year.

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"Every day we face water, we don't have enough water; the garbage is killing us, it's not being removed properly or on time... We don't have water for more than three or four hours in a 24-hour period. In winter we never have it at night, and in summer we don't have it, neither at night nor during the day," said Zymberi.

Problems with drinking water supply are not new, but for many residents, sensitivity to them increases on the eve of elections, when accountability is demanded and solutions are promised.

On October 12, the citizens of Ferizaj will head to the ballot boxes to elect the new mayor of the municipality and the new composition of the Municipal Assembly.

Running for another term is Agim Aliu of the Democratic Party, who has led the municipality since 2017. In the previous elections, Aliu won in the first round with over 62 percent of the vote, leaving behind the candidate of the Vetëvendosje Movement and the LDK.

The current mayor will face Visar Azemi, a candidate from the Democratic League, this year, with the aim of mobilizing the lost electorate. Before Aliu's arrival, Ferizaj was led by the LDK, but in the last local elections, this party fell to third place, not even reaching 10% of the vote.

Meanwhile, the Vetevendosje Movement has not yet named a candidate for Ferizaj. This party's challenge is to carry over the success achieved in the parliamentary elections into the local elections.

In the general elections, held on February 9 this year, Vetëvendosje received 29 votes, almost double the number of votes received by the second-placed party, PDK. But in the local elections held in October 2021, LVV candidate Valon Ramadani came in second, with 12 votes or 26%, although eight months earlier, this party had received 62 percent of the votes, or 35 in total, in the national elections.

In a city with such a high pace of construction and projects, some areas have still not managed to see one of the most basic needs, a functional water supply, in reality. In the village of Sojevë, just a few kilometers from the center, a resident says that the pipes have been installed for years, but the network has never become functional.

"There is no water supply. For five years they have been bringing pipes to the streets, spreading them out, there is no network, there is no water... In the summer we have problems (with water), but we buy it for drinking, because the water from the wells is undrinkable," said a resident of Sojeva.

Water, a promise before every election

The lack of water, especially in the suburbs, is one of the topics that receives attention in election campaigns. But, in many cases, promises remain where pipes are only placed on the surface.

Municipal officials acknowledge some of the problems listed by residents, but say that the central level bears the blame for a large part of them.

The spokesperson for the Municipality of Ferizaj, Selim Marevci, says that on issues such as water supply, the municipality has limited competences.

"From 2021, at the end of 2020, Bifurkacioni, which is a regional company and is the competent body for both water supply and sewage, and in this case with a government decision, all parts of the water supply, the RWCs have become part of the government level and parts of the municipalities, in this case also the one of Ferizaj, have zero competences towards Bifurkacioni," said Marevci.

However, the opposition says that behind the facade of rapid urban transformation lie deep problems of planning and handling of public interest.

Fatbardha Zogaj-Reka is the head of the Vetëvendosje branch in Ferizaj. She says the city has developed at the expense of its citizens and that urban policies are not built on vision, but on interest.

"A city is choked with giant buildings or monsters as I call them. Even schoolyards are occupied by high-rise buildings. There are buildings in schoolyards that are only four meters away from classroom windows," she stated.

"Illegal" construction

A large part of the buildings, especially those above 10 floors, were built over the last 8 years, after the approval of the Municipal Development Plan for the period 2017-2025. But in January of this year, the Court of Appeals annulled this plan and declared it invalid.

Even the municipality's spokesperson admits that multi-story buildings have been a problem that has plagued the city in recent years, but says that Mayor Ali's executive has had no options to bring order to this issue, since when he came to power in 2017, the Development Plan had been approved.

"We are then obliged to work with this Municipal Development Plan, despite the fact that the Court has finally made several decisions and we are also in suspension of this MDP, we are at the beginning of the phase of completing the signing of the contract for the new municipal plan. However, at that time, in 2018, the mayor, through the assembly and our assembly members, requested the amendment of the Plan precisely for these issues that I am rightly raising, but at that time the Ministry of Environment did not allow even one point to be changed in the MDP," said Marevci.

In the continuation of urban development, the Municipality of Ferizaj has built several underpasses with the aim of facilitating traffic and connecting the two sides of the city that are separated by the railway. The projects have been presented as solutions to traffic problems, but there are different opinions about their real effects.

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The municipality insists that the underpasses have significantly improved traffic times.

"To travel the rest of the city to the Ferizaj Hospital, it took about half an hour for the eastern part of the city to reach the Hospital, and in this case, according to the initial feasibility that was done, the real feasibility for the citizens of Ferizaj is now about three to five minutes to reach the Hospital," said spokesperson Marevci.

Citizen Rrahim Xhemajli shares the same assessment of these projects.

"Ferizaj has developed very well. With these tunnels, they have solved the traffic problem. Ferizaj currently has no problems, it lacks nothing. It is good, I hope it continues like this," said Xhemajli.

But not everyone experiences the changes this way.

Shaqir Ramadani is from this city, but lives in Denmark. He says he comes to Ferizaj every summer, and that the problems with access to the city and safety in movement have not been resolved.

"The number one problem is traffic, I don't see anything positive to be honest, even though they have built underpasses... For example, if someone is sick, I had the chance here and the ambulance is stuck, because they have nowhere to go, even cars go away, it's normal when there are migrants, we get a little more, but there's nowhere to go. Sidewalks, we have to go out onto the main road when you walk on the sidewalk, there are no sidewalks. For people with disabilities if we are in a wheelchair, they have nowhere to go", emphasized Ramadani.

Opponents of Mayor Aliu say that the underpasses were built more for propaganda than as a long-term solution.

"With these famous underpasses of Mayor Aliu, we have become known and viral to everyone. But how many are solutions for us? How many are solutions for the citizens themselves? As much as we have seen videos of fireworks during their inaugurations, we have seen many more videos of the defects that those underpasses have brought to the city or the 'step and go' construction that they have had," said Zogaj Reka from LVV.

The opposition criticizes the projects that were promoted with the most fanfare

Opposition member Zogaj-Reka says that, although the underpass project was promoted by the municipality as a means of reunifying the city, in practice it has produced new divisions. According to her, passing through tunnels has restricted citizens' free movement, dictating where they can pass by car, while for pedestrians, especially those who cross the city every day, movement has become more difficult and limited.

"It is also a solution perhaps for those who come and go through our city by car, but it is not a solution for us citizens who move on foot... with these underpasses and the closure that has been made to the city for pedestrians, the separation that has been made to the city, especially for us pedestrians, alluding to the unification of the city, which is not just unification," she declared.

As a counterbalance to the high-rise construction that has characterized Ferizaj in recent years, municipal officials say that in the next mandate, the priority will be the creation of more green spaces and public parks.

The Municipality spokesperson says that one of the largest projects in this regard is nearing completion.

"The mayor has recently received..., we have recently completed the part of the largest park that will be in 'Sherretët', as it is known to the people of Ferizaj, it will be an extraordinary attraction not only for the citizens of Ferizaj, but for all those who gravitate to Ferizaj, because there will be numerous attractions, from the afforestation of that part, the benches," said Marevci.

Spokesperson Marevci accuses the current level of government, which has been led by Vetëvendosje since 2021, of obstructing the municipality from creating green areas in the city.

"We also have a project for the part of the former bus station that will now become a new park for the Municipality of Ferizaj. However, the disaster is elsewhere for the greenery. We had a concrete project for the Gjon Sereçi part, where that school had to be demolished because we now have a large number of school buildings, but unfortunately at that time, the Minister of Culture, Hajrullah Çeku. With an arbitrary decision, he included the Gjon Sereçi part as temporary cultural heritage, despite the fact that the law says that this must be done in full coordination with the Mayor of the Municipality," he said.

But the head of the Vetëvendosje branch in Ferizaj says that the blocking of projects, although in a different sector, was not done by the government, but by the municipality.

"This sabotage that has been done to the government, by not accepting any project offered by our government, has been a challenge in itself. Here is an example, I am starting with kindergartens. Kindergartens solve many vital problems of citizens, for example employment, family organization, etc. In Ferizaj, no kindergarten has been built during this mandate, although the government, namely the Ministry of Education, has offered, with the justification that we do not have plots, a place where a kindergarten can be built in the city", emphasized Zogaj Reka.

Zogaj Reka also criticized the Municipality's approach to secondary schools. According to her, high schools are overcrowded with students, and vocational schools are empty.

Marevci insists that Ferizaj is doing well in terms of school infrastructure. He cited the inability to increase the number of teachers, educators and psychologists as a challenge, for which he blamed the central government.

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In the balance sheet of Agim Ali's promises for the 2021-2025 mandate, data from the GAP Institute, it appears that out of 69 promises made, 29 have been fulfilled, 13 are half-completed, 10 have been started and 17 have not started at all.

On the second Sunday of October, 125 citizens of Ferizaj will have the opportunity to evaluate these balances, by voting for the new mayor and the new composition of the Municipal Assembly, which has 41 seats.