Author: Denis Tahiri
Dorian Bitaj's family in Vlora had to flee again. The flow of the Vjo river changed everything in the blink of an eye. On the evening of December 11, adults and their children ran to escape the floods, leaving behind everything they had. The head of the family, Dorian Bitaj, that evening, saw his house for the last time as he had built it, the roads leading to it full of water, more like a stream, and the yard had turned into a deep and dangerous pit , which climbed towards the walls of the house, conquering everything.
" We got a call from the unit, you have to leave the house because the river is going to rise," he says, who for the moment had only one concern: the lives of his family members. " When we left the house, we went to Vlora to our people, I left the children there too," he says, standing in the yard of the house covered in mud left by the river.
What is left after the flood is sad. Wet walls, mud that is on top of objects and beds, while the sludge brought from the river has also migrated inside electrical appliances.
" Everything in the house is out of order. We were flooded in 2015, and this time too, but this time it was very big. I also spoke to the officials and they said they will not give any compensation. Even the plugs there no longer work, because water has entered them, and the installations have to be done from scratch, plus the loot and everything." Dorian is convinced that the apartment was flooded by the embankment built when, during its design, the Bitaj family's apartment and several others were left out of the project.
On the other hand, asked more than a month before the floods about the measures taken in relation to civil emergencies during the winter, the Municipality of Vlorë officially said that it has cleaned 75 km of canals, of which only 3 kilometers are first canals and main irrigation canals. while another 70 km second and third drainage canals.
In a risk assessment document regarding floods in the city of Vlora, the Prefect of this region states that: "The destruction or lack of the high water channel (a channel that has existed throughout the entire crown of Vlora), causes water to flow throughout the city containing stones and wood, especially on the road and houses near the hospital, near the Police Station, as well as in the place called 7 pallatet as a result of the discharge of water from the Kaninë village."
I always boil under water
But what raises more questions is the fact that the risk of flooding in the Vlora region has been identified as greatest during the November-March period, especially in specific areas such as Novosela. But the plan of measures approved by the Municipality of Vlora was only made on December 3, 2021. In addition, it turns out that the approved plan of measures is simply a document where no concrete measures appear on the ground, but mostly general instructions. On the other hand, the Prefect of Vlora identifies another problem that greatly affects the flooding of a significant part of the villages in this area. " The construction of the highway itself in the Novosela area (Bishan Village), although there are manholes or underpasses that change the normal flow of water, concentrating it in several places and threatening the villages of Fitore and Bishan in particular. Water from the highway may be present for 2-3 days ," it is written in an official document of the prefect of Vlora provided by ACQJ, adding that the lack of investment in the works, in the first, second and third sewers, also brings problems.
Puke municipality expects to be blocked by snow: Logistic scheme
The only plan of measures that bears the name of coincidence is related to the Municipality of Pukë, which is waiting for the blockage due to snowfall. Every year, the blocking of Puka villages due to snowfall is something that turns into news headlines. Not more than four years ago, this area was isolated for days on end, taking the municipality out of the game for dealing with civil emergencies. In reality, in the civil emergency management system that Albania has in place, the heaviest burden falls on the local government. The Municipality of Puka also admits that it cannot afford it.
"The community has been sensitized through the official website of the Municipality (web) as well as the local media for responding to emergencies in general, or fires in particular. Actions have been coordinated with all local and central sectors. The logistics and old technique of the MZSH firefighting vehicles remain an ongoing problem. Work is being done to repair the pedestrian bridges and bridges for vehicles in the administrative units of Qelëz and Luf-Qerret, which are in the completion phase," this institution officially states, adding that in the inventory of this municipality there is a snowplow available for cleaning rural axes, cleaning soils and inerts that may be present on rural roads from rain and landslides. But this vehicle is also used for clearing snow on all road axes in the jurisdiction of the Municipality. But the Municipality of Puka has an area of 505.5 square km and is located at an altitude of 835 m above sea level, and these data clearly show how impossible it is for the local government to keep open the rural and intercity road axes with only one snowplow. Moreover, the vehicle is not suitable for snow removal.
" The Municipality of Puka owns a truck for supplying educational institutions with firewood and everything else necessary for the functioning of the community of the Municipality of Puka, a truck for distributing salt and granulate on all roads in the territory of the Municipality of Puka, purchasing salt and granulate in cases of snow and frost during the winter period ," states the Municipality of Puka, which adds that it has established the Municipality's KMEC to cope with and prevent expected situations in the autumn-winter 2020-2021, and a plan of measures has been drafted for the implementation of concrete tasks.
"Based on past years where snow and ice are present almost throughout the winter, support is required with the availability of two snowplows and two snow removal vehicles to cope with expected situations due to snow accumulation ," says the Puka Municipality in its official response, emphasizing in bold that it needs two snowplows, which although it has requested, have not yet arrived.
Under these conditions, this municipality has its hopes in a private entity, which owns 13 heavy tonnage vehicles. In this case, the rescue remains there, because according to the municipality, the option is contracting in case of immediate need according to the legal provisions.
Pëllumb Dani, responsible for the Sector of planning, dealing with emergencies and crises at the Shkodër Prefect, says that either the Pukë Municipality or Shkodër, which are specific to the snow blockages, have used the funds, but they are insufficient funds to cope with the situation 3 months of winter.
"I know very well that after a week they will certainly ask for logistical support because the current fund that they have foreseen is probably insufficient, but even the current means that some have provided themselves with their own means are still insufficient", says Dani who has been following the issue of emergencies in the Shkodra Prefecture for many years. He also gives the reason why the Municipality of Puka is unable to cope with winter emergencies on its own. " Puka, especially Fushë Arrëzi, has a large area, Fushë-Arrëzi alone has about 400 km of road in its jurisdiction and it is impossible to cope with it with two highways and create the possibility of connecting the units with the center of the Municipality. Because for areas such as Iballa, where 2-3 meters of snow falls, it is very difficult because the entire budget that it has, the entire logistics that it has to make the road passable" , he concludes.
Shkodra gets ready for flood boats
Not more than a year ago, water covered most of Shkodra. The local government found it impossible to react to the floods, while metal boats appeared which served to move people and supply them with food. During the floods, boats became the main means of movement for the flooded residents. But it was not the only case of flooding in Shkodra, during the last few years it has happened several times, turning it into an expected event.
"Floods in Shkodra have been problematic. It is known that the most problematic one is the flood of 2010, which was followed in 2011 and then repeated in 2018 and was repeated this year in 2021. Floods also occur due to the geographical position of the Shkodra lowland. It is understood that all the large rivers such as the Black Drini, the White Drini, the Buna River, the Gjadër River are all in the Shkodra lowland and will emerge in a gorge, which is the Belajve gorge in the Velipoja area, which flows into the sea. Whether we like it or not, this territory is prone, both geographically and with several projects that have been carried out since the time of the Party of Labor, to flooding a good part of the Shkodra lowland. If we add rain or snow to this basin, we are inevitably heading towards floods ." says Pëllumb Dani, head of the Planning, Emergency and Crisis Response Sector at the Shkodra Prefect.
The Municipality of Shkodra officially announces that it has provided the conditions for the evacuation of the population in case of need for 550 beds. "Storage spaces for food packages have been made available and the structure for their storage and distribution is functioning with working groups for families affected by natural disasters ," this institution officially states.
Meanwhile, the Municipality of Shkodër says that it has taken measures through the city's Water and Sewerage to supply it with drinking water. The municipality also states that it has available a quantity of 75 tons of food for the livestock and has determined a place to stay for them and the persons responsible for each unit. The cleaning of 98 secondary and solvent drainage canals, with a length of 75.25 km, was also done. What stands out is that this institution, even though it has been constantly facing floods in its territory for more than 10 years, there is no floating vehicle in its inventory that can be effective during such an emergency.
Pëllumb Dani states that no matter how many projects have been made, flooding has not been avoided: "The Shkodra lowland is traditionally flooded and no matter how many projects are made and how much intervention is made, it has simply been possible to reduce flooding but not to stop it, also because the mountainside field project was made to be flooded in such situations."
On the other hand, for cases of snow blockage, this Municipality owns several vehicles and has purchased materials. Currently, the Municipality of Shkodra has purchased 40 tons of black salt to deal with emergencies in cases of snow and frost to keep the roads open and has signed contracts for the maintenance of the city's roads, where as it is announced, interventions are foreseen in the field areas with: " Two snowplows for clearing the road from snow for the realization of 320 hours of work, which are foreseen to intervene in the city and in the field administrative units to create conditions for the movement of people and vehicles as quickly as possible".
Meanwhile, for mountainous areas, two excavators are provided for road opening works in case of emergencies, 320 working hours, as well as one excavator for road opening works in emergency cases, 160 working hours. This institution itself has on standby an excavator with chains, 5 wheel loaders, 2 of which belong to the Municipality and three to the Water and Sewerage Company, 1 7-ton truck, and 3 pick-up trucks.
Even though they were flooded, there are no compensations for the people of Shkodran
In Obot, boats are one of the indispensable tools, at least the residents of this village call them that. It is not even surprising that in this village you can also see water motors. Since 2009, Oboti has become one of the frequently flooded areas in Shkodër. Gregor Pema, the village headman, says that since 2009, every two or three years the village floods, suffering great damage.
" My house was flooded in 2010, 2011, now I have dismantled the house and built another 15-story building to at least prevent water from entering my house. The damage has been immense. This damage has devastated the people of Oboti ," he says.
This year too, the village of Obot could not escape the floods. " 8 dulim of wheat cost 1 million lek to plant, with seed purchase, milling, fertilization and all. The other wheat has been taken internally, 2018, 2021, internally, I planted it again this year and it still went to waste," says Gregori, who adds that currently there are 200 dulim of wheat planted in the village, which has gone to waste, also counting the greenhouses that have been damaged, he says convinced that the damage is very great. " No one has thought about these people here," says the village headman.
But in the history of compensation for the floods in Shkodër, it seems that politics has a significant part of the blame.
Sources from the Municipality of Shkodra inform that, in fact, the damage calculations have been made, and have even been sent to the prefecture, but there have been problems with the figures which have been returned as they were inflated figures.
" For the 2018 and 2020 floods, damages have not been compensated. One of the reasons is these inflated invoices, while there have also been many agricultural lands that cause a handicap. Because it is related not only to the farmer but also to business. The government's decision says that it will compensate houses if there are damages and businesses, but businesses if they are registered in taxes ," says an official of the Shkodra Municipality, who asked to remain anonymous. Among other things, the same source announced that in 2010 the floods were massive and the damages were very large. " At least 400 businesses in the Shkodra municipality have not been compensated, of those 20 may have been compensated no more, as other businesses have not been registered for taxes and have not received compensation. While today compensation only applies to houses, the Government must issue a separate decision for businesses and these businesses are taken into consideration for compensation when a natural disaster is declared," the same source said, among other things.
The same source told Sinjalizo that last year the damages were very large, the figures were very large, but the Municipal Council blocked them. " In reality, the figures for the damages were inflated and then, normally, politics came into play," he concludes.
