I come from a small city called Delvinë, located in the southern part of Albania. The city itself is surrounded by mountains and hills. The highest mountain is Sopoti , and the nature is just mesmerizing. The economy is based on agriculture and farming, medicinal plants , all of this activities which are so closely related to the soil, to nature.

The geological composition where the city is positioned, was since long ago considered to be rich with oil, and has been producing natural gas for long time but with no harm to the environment. Two years ago, in 2012 an oil company operating in other parts of Albania, tried to extract oil also from my city. The method chosen to see if they could extract oil, was hydraulic fracturing (a process in which fractures in rock below the earth's surface are opened and widened by injecting chemicals and liquids at high pressure: used especially to extract natural gas or oil).

And the results were that the underground water which is used by half of the population was contaminated with hydrocarbons and other types of chemicals, and this was discovered only after several months had passed, when the contamination became very obvious not only physically but also in the health of the people. Until that time, the people had been drinking that water.

For this problem there has been only some small protest in the beginning , where it was asked to bring water by another source, a documentary was also realized as to make the problem more visible. And still nothing, the only thing proposed was that the people try to get water from the public taps in the city center provided so "generously" by the city council. The situation became even more ridiculous when it was claimed that the chemistry of the water was changed because of the rise of the rainfall on that season. And despite all this the people are still using the contaminated water for their house needs and accept to live with this problem, not taking into consideration the grave consequences that the future might bring.

There is a trend in Albania that even in those few cases when people speak for their rights, the parties try to make it political and that is quite frustrating. Seems like a treaty of silence has been signed unanimously since everyone knows what is happening but no one does anything, no one speaks about it. I seriously don't understand the apathy of the people and how can they accept the situation as it is, even when their rights are being denied. I wish the people would speak up and demand their rights, I wish the health of an entire city and the nature would not be at stake just for the sake of "development" as they call it.
While nothing is happening with hurry to help the people that have to carry drinkable water everyday to their houses, while no other water supply is provided because of lack of funds, the oil company is expanding its project to build three small thermo power plants.

And with great sadness I have to say, that I have realized that this is a small scale example of what is happening globally. We are playing with the limits of nature, and we are staying loyal to an economical system which is bound to fail. People without a voice are suffering, in the sake of false promises of a few jobs. But what do we need those jobs when we are losing the basic human rights, of breathing pure air, of drinkable water?!

We live in a world where even the most forgotten and smallest places on earth, are only not forgotten for the corporations.

Kristina Huda