The work to reconstruct and repair homes and apartment buildings following the major earthquake that hit the port city of Durres on November 26 last year is well underway. Prime Minister Edi Rama visited again the city of Durres to closely inspect progress of ongoing repair and reconstruction work aimed at making sure all affected families return to their rebuilt homes as soon as possible.
The government head reiterated his appeal to all quake-affected families to lodge their applications with “My Home” web app in order to become eligible to benefit compensation according to the damage level.
“Everyone should file the application with My Home web platform, because the application process should complete between Feb 28 and March 8 so that we can prepare the due files once the damage assessment process is carried out by the local government authorities in order to have a full picture and complete set of data for the donors too, otherwise the process could not advance further for anyone who fails to make the application. The level of damages sustained by every family has been already assessed, but these families should file their application and request for funding as law stipulates. More than 20,000 applications have been lodged and processed to date, but there are thousands of other families that should apply for compensation. Once application is filed, every applicant is eligible to compensation according to the level of damage. We will provide support to recover from all kinds of damages according to the list we have already compiled in collaboration with the international partners,” PM Rama said.
He urged local government authorities in Durres to speed up the reconstruction process, saying that if the labour force is not sufficient to meet the reconstruction program needs, then assistance will be required from other countries.
“We will hire foreign workers, if necessary,” the Premier said.
As many as 1871 apartment homes are currently undergoing reconstruction and these affected families have also received rental bonus.
