Residents of the Roma neighborhood in the municipality of Gracanica are experiencing a challenging situation due to poor infrastructure. In addition, the residents of this neighborhood lack sewer systems, which makes life more difficult for them. They have continuously lodged complaints and requested assistance from the authorities, KosovaPress reports.

The stench from the lack of sewers has become unbearable for Faton Ajetovic, who emphasized that the sewer has been blocked for nearly a month. This resident fears that children are at risk of infectious diseases.

Although they have requested help from the municipality and some teams from Pristina, Ajetovic said they tried to unblock it, but it was impossible for them, and they left without finding a solution for the residents of this neighborhood.

It’s been almost a month that the sewer is blocked. That’s all, black water is coming out of the sewer into people’s yards, and it’s a terrible smell. Children can get infected. A team from Pristina came a month ago, they tried for five or six minutes, but they couldn’t unblock the sewage and left. There are problems with sewage on the other road as well, and no one has come to see how the sewer can be fixed. This is a disgrace for our municipal officials who should come and see this situation, because the children go out into the street and walk around, and everything is sewage,” Ajetovic said.Another resident of this neighborhood, Fikret Berisha, expressed his concern about the municipality of Gracanica, which is not supporting them as a community.

“We have a problem with the municipality of Gracanica; they’re not supervising the Roma neighbourhood at all. We’ve been struggling for a month with a blocked sewer system, and no one has come to check it out. The children don’t have a place to go or to go to school; it’s a catastrophe. The smell of sewage is unbearable, no one can pass by or stand outside; now that it’s summer, the smell shouldn’t be like this. This is a disease,” added Berisha.

Another resident – a man who wished to remain anonymous – stated for KosovaPress that the situation is quite bad, but according to him, no concrete action has been taken by the authorities to improve the situation.“No one comes to fix it. They come and say they’ll do this and that, but nothing happens. It’s really difficult here; we have nearly 140 houses,” said the resident off-camera.

The Municipality of Gracanica has stated that it has intervened several times in the sewer network in the Rome neighborhood in Gracanica.

“In addition to installing new covers, since the old metal ones were stolen, we have carried out cleaning and manual digging, as well as replacing the sewer pipes. The residents of the Roma neighborhood are careless and do not use the sewer properly, throwing various objects that cause frequent blockages. We emphasize that the maintenance of the sewer network is the responsibility of the Regional Water Supply Company ‘Prishtina,’ as the sewer service is paid along with the water bill. The Municipality always assists and intervenes when the Regional Water Supply Company ‘Prishtina’ fails to resolve the issue,” said Vladica Trajkovic, the Director of Public Services in the Municipality of Gracanica.

(This product was created in collaboration between CFID and KosovaPress. within the framework of the project: “Countering negative stereotypes about Kosovo Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities through media initiative” , which is funded by UNMIK.)