Kičevo landfill in town centre sparks fight over transfer station
Residents demand removal and full remediation of the decades-old dump; authorities call a transfer station a necessary step toward a regional solution.
Alongside Ohrid, Kičevo is confronting an environmental problem that has lasted for decades: an open dump located almost in the town centre that continues to threaten residents' health and pollute the surroundings.
Local opposition stalls planned transfer station
The Municipality of Kičevo and the Ministry of Environment say a waste transfer station at the site is a necessary step inside a wider regional waste-management system. According to the integrated project for the South‑West and Pelagonia regions, a central, modern landfill should be built in the Municipality of Novaci, with waste from neighbouring municipalities — including Kičevo and Ohrid — collected at transfer stations and transported to Novaci for further treatment.
Residents, however, strongly oppose placing a transfer station at the existing dump. They argue the new facility would merely formalise and continue the poisoning of the town, and are demanding immediate relocation of the dump and full remediation of the site rather than new waste-management buildings on that location.
Eco‑activists describe it as incomprehensible that landfill problems across the wider region remain so complex that they cannot be resolved for decades. The planned regional system, they say, has been delayed by slow administration, prolonged tender procedures and persistent public concern.
Until the regional system becomes fully operational, municipalities in the South‑West remain caught between the persistent odour of illegal dumps and the urgent need to close and rehabilitate long‑standing garbage sites.
Photo: press material from the event
