TIRANA, May 21 – People’s Advocate Igli Totozani has called on the Albanian government to relocate the residents of a village in central Albania, which he said has become uninhabitable following an eruption at an oil well near the village.
A temporary relocation of Marinza village is needed to avoid risks associated with the pollution in the area, Totozani said.
Totozani’s call came as prosecutors started a criminal probe into the causes of the gas eruption in Marinza last month, which caused serious safety concerns.
Bankers Petroleum, a company based in Canada but which has most of its operations in Albania, has continued its operations in the area.
Prosecutors in nearby Fier city said they had started investigation and were looking to charge seven Bankers employees in relation to the April 1 explosion.
They are being investigated for charges of property destruction and pollution, officials said.
The Ministry of Health had earlier said the public water system Marinza can no longer be used for human consumption. Private water wells also fell outside the standards for human consumption, the ministry said.
The National Environment Agency has found that the sulfur dioxide present in Marinza was 56 percent more than the norm set by the World Health Organization, while the nitrogen dioxide was 49 percent more than the international norm. Both gases are toxic to humans.
Bankers Petroleum said in a press release Thursday that its analysis of the air, water and soil around the village Marinza shows that the environment was not affected by the April 1 eruption.
The company said its findings come from comparing samples before and after the incident, which were then analyzed by independent laboratories both in Albania and abroad.
Bankers said it acted appropriately and quickly normalized the situation at the well.
It has also promised financial compensation for residents who had their homes damaged.
However, the residents of Marinza have held protests seeking to be paid to permanently relocate elsewhere. They said their livelihoods – the agricultural land and the milk they produce – had become contaminated.
