The villages located on the side of the mountain of Sopot in the southeast of Albania, are among the most forgotten areas of the municipality of Delvina.
Historically in Varfaj a village of 80 inhabitants, women and girls have carried water from long distances traversing the forest and mountainside on foot to the stream of Ongo. 70-year-old Agim says that the village of Varfaj and Paleohori, the latter abandoned, has been without water for 104 years since its creation.
“All the women of this village have taken the water with their arms from Okna to here with buckets. Both here and in the village, my mother came here in 1933, from Chameria, from Paramithia, and in this place she never had running water or taps. We drank water from streams and rivers, because we also had big winters, the streams were full and that’s how we grew up”, says the resident Agim Canaj.
The village of Varfaj, resting on the side of the mountain, is surrounded by cattle stables. Breeders here care about 2000 small cattle, which along with medicinal plants are the only income for the area. In contrast to many remote provinces, in Varfaj 70% of the population remains there, although life is more difficult every day. In Varfaj, water is transported from far by cars and farm animals.
“With the drought starting now, people have to get water from outside once every 3-4 days. People take water with animals, by car, according to their possibilities, because the possibilities are few”, said Reshat Ademi, village head.
The last investment that is remembered in the village was that of 20 years ago where a Dutch charity foundation financed the construction of a water storage and distribution network. The village that refuses to relocate was created decades ago, by the population of Cameria, expelled from their territories on the other side of the frontier. The inhabitants of the village of Varfaj, one of the most isolated areas in the South, have only one basic request from the government of Albania, after 104 years of waiting and many difficulties, they want to have water.
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