Prime Minister Edi Rama today Sukth, Katund i Ri, an area affected by strong rain falls in the last two days. Last night, the Civil Emergency, local government and the armed forces evacuated approximately 80 families, some of which have been sheltered at the Holiday Home of the Ministry of Interior in Durres. The evacuation was done with vessels and helicopters of the Ministry of Defence. The purpose and the primary task of all structures involved on the ground is to safeguard the life of citizens, support their needs and facilitate the situation. Meanwhile, food is being distributed to flood-affected families.

“We have evacuated 80 families in Shijak and Sukth. All operational structures have been involved. Overnight, 250 families were evacuated across the country, and currently the situation is improving because of the reduction of the intensity of rainfall”, Director of Civil Emergency Shemsi Premçi informed.

Thanks to maximum mobilization, the intervention of the emergency structures has been immediate, as residents themselves confirmed, with the result that the situation is under control and is being monitoring minute by minute. “The support of state structures was immediate as soon as we alerted them”, residents told the Prime Minister.

“This is a phenomenon we cannot stop. We have the railways and the highway next to each other and a funnel has been created. The canal has been displaced when works for the highway were carried out. We would have no problems today, but the works were made according to someone’s interest, and so the 50-metre diameter pipe that has been put cannot cope with the rainfall. That’s the whole problem. State structures have worked properly. We have nothing to complain about”, a resident of Katundi i Ri, Sukth said.

The Prime Minister assured the residents that the support of all state structures will continue to be maximal, but he also called on the people to take action in order to protect their business and houses by insuring them.

“Mobilization of everybody and effectiveness have been maximal, but we must be aware that these are bills that we pay and will continue to pay for a chaotic, unplanned, unregulated development without discipline, with haphazard constructions and projects. We have done a great job for the cleaning of canals in this 2-year period.

We have a major project to clean secondary canals, for which we will allocate 25 million dollars in collaboration with the local government. Meanwhile, we will continue with the restructuring of drainage boards also for highways, embankments, and so on. I believe that mobilization and efficiency have been maximal and better than the last time, because we have paid much attention to civil emergencies, and will continue to give importance to and strengthen the civil emergency fleet.”

But besides the weather conditions, floods in the country are also favoured by the approach to the territory in these 25 years, during which forests, river beds, etc. have been destroyed. One of the first measures of this year, the Prime Minister said, will be the establishment of a 10-year forest protection Moratorium.

“Our barbaric behaviour with nature, forests, rivers, defence works that have been demolished to build houses, all this has a cost. The first major step that we will do early this year is the Forest Moratorium. We will drastically stop the cutting down of woods for 10 years in order to create an opportunity for recovery, and regain a protective structure from erosion that cannot be replaced by any canal and any excavator. We are so much in debt with the past 20 years, during which an unparalleled savagery and massacre have occurred. What happened in Albania in terms of the destruction of nature and of the natural protective structures in the past 20 years, during which the balance of nature was destroyed and situations like this one were created, has not happened in 500 years. The example of the canal you mentioned proves what I said. This is the costs we are paying because of nonsense stories. The project was done and implemented without any criteria, and here we have the result.”

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Prime Minister Rama stopped today in Shijak, where homes are still under the power of water in the area known as the former lake of the city. The residents tell:

“This used to be a lake. Before it was the sports field of Shijak, and then it became a lake, but it has not been used as such for 30 years”, one of the residents said. An elderly man said he was expecting this to happen, because the defect was created year after year, since the beginning of the pluralism era. “I told to those others, how many times are you going to ruin us? Can the state be built by pressing just a button? I have experienced this, and I have been afraid of what was going to happen. Everything was destroyed year after year.”

Considering such cases, that are numerous in many areas of the country, the risk map will be designed to clarify the risk areas. “We will design the risk map. People need to know if they have built their homes where the bed of the lake used to be. They need to know that they are in danger as soon the first rain start”, Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri informed.

Besides compensation to the families affected by floods in the past, investments in infrastructure have been increased in order to prevent and minimize floods.

“As never before, we have compensated the people affected by the floods that occurred at the beginning of last year, and we have compensated them in every aspect, including livestock and poultry production. In addition, we have paid all arrears of the previous government, amounting to approximately 7 million Euros in the plain of Shkodra, and will do our best to support you. Climate changes have brought additional problems everywhere. In addition, we have the cost of everything we have done in 25 years: cut the woods, destroyed rivers, embankments, dams, destroyed the balance of nature and built haphazardly. Then there are the projects we saw where we were before coming here. These are costs. We have cleaned out approximately 649 kilometres of canals, where no works were made for over 20 years. But there is still need for mor work, and we will continue intensively this year with all canals for the Durres area, including this area”, the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister reiterated in Shijak the necessity for businesses and families to have a new mentality and insure their property.

In his visit to the areas affected by floods, Prime Minister Rama was accompanied by Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri, Minister of Social Welfare and Youth Blendi Klosi, the mayor of Durres Vangjush Dako and the Mayor of Shijak Adrian Kokomani.