By Desada Sadiku, Vetting
Former Albanian enterprises were once considered one of the national prides of the Republic of Albania, especially during the communist regime. Now, left in oblivion like the Laçi superphosphate plant or the Kuçovë oil mechanical plant, they are considered environmental hazards for the health of the community and cities where they were born.
Official data reports that these ruins still contain dangerous elements, such as copper, arsenic, oil, in significant quantities, up to thousands of tons of chemical waste. These elements penetrate the water substrata of the land where they were built. The buildings, which were once fortresses for economic support, are now buildings with moldy walls, the collapse of which has claimed the lives of many residents of the area over the years.
Annual reports suggest that protective and clean-up layers be put in place for these former enterprises. A document has also been approved, which deals with waste management, based on a fund of more than 60 million euros. However, on the horizon, problems continue, chemical waste still endangers the lives of communities, public funds are not visible and responsibility is passed from one institution to another.
Former Superphosphate Plant in Laç
If you travel through cities that once prided themselves on the rise and development of enterprises as an economic epithet, these cities now bear the last remains of these factories, waiting to be looked at after three decades of abandonment.
One of the cases is the former Superphosphate Plant in Laç. “Born” in 1967, this enterprise turned Laç from a village with a small population into one of the most developed industrial cities of the communist regime. And not only that. This birth of activity brought growth and development of the inhabitants, both in economic and socio-cultural terms.
Engineers, chemists, and various experts came from southern Albania as the plant was built and the number of jobs kept increasing. Work was converted into three shifts, so that activity would not stop at any moment and every task would be carried out with precision.
"The city was carefully selected because it was where both the railways and the highways intersected. And all industrial products were easily collected through transport in that place. But from a village with two or three inhabitants, it turned into an industrial city where the inhabitants not only lived, but also worked near the factory," said anthropologist Alfred Halilaj. He further added that the factory was desirable because it was also close to the capital, offering career opportunities.
At first glance, this newly born city, with the creation of a factory with the most modern technologies coming from China, at that time, the problems had actually just begun.
"Now, everyday problems, that is, it was known that certain departments, especially the entire plant, were classified as having chemical contamination. Even more so, if we talk about pesticides, whether they are herbicides or insecticides, it is known that the very word acids and pesto five are deadly," said Magdalena Cara, former technologist at the Superphosphate Plant in Laç.
In a two-year experience at the Laçi Metallurgical Plant, from 1988-1990, the former technology showed that the main elements of agriculture were produced there, such as powdered superphosphate, sodium fluorosilicate, copper sulfate, etc. These chemicals created breathing problems, deposits, and calcifications in the lungs.
“I had deaths at the plant at that time, crane workers working on powdered superphosphate, at the age of 54 or 50. We had two or three deaths with those in the plant, simply from the exposures that these workers had,” says former technician Cara. She adds that the only “antidote” that was given to all the plant staff was a half liter of powdered milk, mixed with water, supposedly to remove the exposure to the chemicals. “There was a, so to speak, time when I worked, it was the peak of work, but also the peak of poverty at that time.”
The days on the calendar were passing, time was passing, and the fall of the dictator's bust also brought the collapse of large enterprises. It was the beginning of the 2000s, which marked the closure of the Superphosphate Plant in Laç, thus leaving many people unemployed. That was not all that was left behind.
The supposed entrance to this 38-hectare area, once buzzing with 24-hour work, is now dominated only by the noise of cars passing on the adjacent road and the silence of elements that are dangerous to the health of the surrounding community. These elements have never left, from the beginning of the plant to the state it is in today, endangering people's lives in one way or another.
One of the by-products produced at the plant was a type of insecticide, specifically sodium fluorosilicate, which was used abroad for the chemical industry and had quite toxic effects. Meanwhile, as experts neutralized the high levels of acids with lime, the lime was dumped into the drains, remaining active and subsequently causing breathing problems, skin damage, eye damage, etc.
Magdalena Cara adds that at that time there was not much attention paid to awareness of side effects, especially environmental ones. She further tells of a case where, for just one dangerous ceiling defect, which she and her team had to examine, they were equipped with gas masks and L1 suits.
"You may not have heard of it, but it was a type of suit used in the army, in the flight that we did. Especially those of us who were in the platoon, had to be exposed to chemicals with counter-gas and imagine how dangerous this part was. There was no awareness of how to protect yourself, but in certain environments, where there was dust, there were toxic substances, that you would enter for a breakdown or to assess the situation, you definitely had to wear all the protective equipment, which were protective equipment against poisonous combat substances, because that was what was at that time," recalls the former technology.
Meanwhile, over the years, the factory began to deteriorate. These metal giants that were once shelters for employment, today are ruins, moldy walls, whose collapse from moment to moment continues to endanger the lives of residents.
One in two buildings have rubble of bricks and metal wires extracted, as a result of scrap collection, in exchange for a monetary value. In these ruins, people from the community, who saw the abandoned factory as a salvation for them and their families, have lost their lives.
"Then, after the '90s, when it was no longer used, people who went to haul scrap metal became victims. And this has been an alarm that we have raised several times and continue to raise, given that even today, if we go to the territory of the former Superphosphate Plant, it is easily accessible and any individual can enter there, linking this to the approach that the Kurbin community is a relatively poor community," Elsa Sula, director of the "Sebastia" Youth Center in Laç, told "Vetting".
In just 14 years, five people have lost their lives as a result of walls collapsing on them.
In 2004, the Gjoka family lost their head of the family, mining iron due to economic conditions. His son also suffered his misfortune in 2016. Meanwhile, in 2013, the ruins took with them 18-year-old Gjin Lleshaj, who from that age had seen the plant as a form of survival for him and his family.
The most recent victims were in 2018, two friends Drilon Lamaj, 27, and Dashamir Hajna, 28 at the time. The difficult economic conditions and unemployment were deadly elements that found some hope in the metal remains of the former factory.
The danger to this community is not only the bricks and scrap metal, but also the hazardous waste left behind after the plant closed. In different parts of the plant, there are often areas without vegetation, the soil of which has a specific color, which confirms that hazardous waste is still there.
"On mornings when there is dew and humidity, you can smell pesticides. So, even to someone's eye, like in my specific case, I am not an environmental expert, but I understand that there are poisons or pesticides there and it is contaminated soil. Another detail is that on rainy days, the ponds that fill with water have a specific color, which indicates that there may be pesticides there and there may also be poisonous substances," the director of the youth center adds.
Institutional Reports
The first and only soil study conducted in this area was conducted in 2000 by the United Nations Environment Programme, otherwise known as UNEP. This study, also mentioned in the 2016 Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Municipality of Kurbin, identifies the Superphosphate Plant and the Copper Factory in Laç as “hot-spots” of environmental problems. The results of their analyses revealed the occurrence of arsenic and copper elements, which could contaminate drinking water sources through rainwater.
According to them, the waste dump was built without any prior soil preparation, without placing a protective bottom layer, or without building a drainage system to remove infiltration.
They added that the upper secondary aquifer of the aquifer is thought to be contaminated.
It is also thought that the underground aquifers flow towards several fields with drinking water wells, which are located in the lower part of the factory. Meanwhile, it was also discovered that the land around the Copper Factory is polluted and contaminated by various chemicals that were used during the production process such as iron, sulfur, metal oxides, asbestos, etc. They estimated the pollution at around 3100 tons spread over almost 12 hectares of land.
Meanwhile, over the last 25 years, although there have been reports of deaths as a result of chemical elements, but also of the degradation of the plant, there has been no current information about the current condition of the former plant and other former enterprises, as the same study has been used by Albanian institutions in their environmental reports.
The National Environmental Agency has announced in the National Environmental Monitoring Program for 2025 that the former Superphosphate Plant in Laç has about 60 kilograms of waste for laboratory use and 30 thousand tons of iron waste. This figure is also stated in the State of the Environment Report for 2021, which also adds that the waste is deposited in the factory area, which again has no waste protection or filtration system.
This is also supported by the State of the Environment Report for 2024, which states that factories and plants still release heavy metals and hazardous chemicals into surface waters.
This enterprise was once owned by the Kurbin Municipality, but later its responsibility was transferred to the Ministry of Finance. On the other hand, a 2013 Council of Ministers Decision decided that the enterprise should be transferred to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Economy, turning the former factory into a company in liquidation.
Meanwhile, on February 22, 2021, the "Sebastia" Youth Center based in Laç-Kurbin, undertook a national petition regarding the Superphosphate Factory, where they asked the Ministry of Infrastructure and Economy to draft a detailed plan for the dismantling of this facility, the packaging and relocation of hazardous chemical waste to a safe location, as well as the drafting and implementation of a rehabilitation project for the former Plant.
So far, 724 signatures have been received, but there has still been no improvement in the condition of the factory, leaving the community waiting. Meanwhile, the young people of Laç have often suggested that after proper rehabilitation and cleaning, the factory be returned to a space for cultural and tourist activities, such as use for theater stages, film shoots, a museum to show life at that time, or even painting the tall chimneys.
"They are buildings that speak with their silence, and the state must intervene so that silence can make a sound, tell a story, and why not, return to serve the residents, now in a different historical and cultural context," says anthropologist Alfred Halilaj.
