Today, a public hearing was held with the residents of the three villages of the Xibër administrative unit, Klos Municipality, regarding the construction of the quarry by the company "Super Beton Mati", positioned on the border of the village of Fshat and Petralbë. The geographical proximity of the areas means that the quarry has an impact on the village of Guri i Bardhë.
Almost 150 residents of the above villages and representatives of the Klos Municipality participated in this hearing. All residents voted unanimously against the quarry.
"They informed us yesterday that a quarry should be opened. They made the hearing public, we were unanimously against it", - the headman of the village Resul Baleta told Citizens Channel.
The basis of the residents' opposition is related to the negative impact this activity would have on the environment, in the touristic and historical areas.
"These villages have a base because that mountain has a history, which is the Petralba Castle, it is connected to the Vasha Bridge which is no more than 500 meters from the point where they want to build, plus the village of Guri i Bardhë which is one of the 100 tourist villages", - says the deputy mayor of Klos Municipality, Armand Gjini, for Citizens Channel.
Ura e Vaša and the Castle of Petralba are Cultural monument, category I. Residents of other villages of the Xibër unit are also against the construction of this quarry.
"The attitude of the village of Shkalle is totally against that quarry and any quarry in the territory of the Xibër administrative unit because the effect of any quarry here is harmful to agriculture, water resources, the ecosystem", - affirms the elder of the village of Shkalle, Adbulla Muça.
"The impact is devastating for our village, since we are very close to the village of Gur i Bardhë", Muca concluded.
"Super Beton Mati" has addressed the Municipality of Klos with a request for the development of this hearing. Earlier, in 2010, this company had requested to be provided with a mining permit for obtaining limestone in Qafë-Shkoze, Klos.
According to the document "Register of mining permits, dated 22.09.2020", published by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, the company "Super Beton Mati" was granted a permit in 2013 for the use of limestone in Qafë-Shkoze.
The Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Mati explains that the activity of taking limestone in that area has not been carried out as a result of the Arbri road and therefore the location of the construction of the quarry has been changed.
Citizens Channel did not receive any response from representatives of the "Super Betoni Mat" company until the publication of this article.
Klos: The community opposed the quarry in the village of Shkalle and won
Earlier, in the same administrative unit, Xibër planned to build another quarry, the one in Shkalle village.
After some objections, in November of 2021, a hearing was held with the residents of the village, undertaken by the Klos Municipality, and unanimously, the 84 participants from the community opposed the construction of the quarry by the "Gjoka Konstruksion" company. This company planned to exploit the limestone on an area of 4.5 dynym of land.
In the same month, the Municipal Council of Klos received decision not to approve the removal of the above surface of 4.5 dynami from the forest fund, as the last missing link in the procedures, which would open the way for the company "Gjoka Konstruksion" to start the works.
