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| Situation Update No. 9 Ref.no.: FL-20100104-24428-ALB
Situation Update No. 9
On 2010-01-11 at 10:08:36 [UTC]
Event: Flood
Location: Albania Region of Shkodra Number of Evacuated: 4025 person(s)
Situation: Thousands of people have been evacuated in Northern Albania as the country’s struggles to control its worst flooding in nearly half a century. Albanian authorities continued to discharge water from three hydro-power plants on the Drin River on Monday, after danger levels were reached following weeks of heavy rainfall and melting snow. On Sunday Albania’s President Bamir Topi responded to speculation in the media over the safety of the dams, striving to assure the public that the dams will not break. “The situation is improving fast and this will affect the flooded areas hopefully with a sense of optimism,” said Topi in a statement. “I want to assure the public the Drin River dams have a high level of safety,” he added. According to the national emergency task force set up to deal with the situation over 4,000 people have so far been evacuated from their homes and 2,200 homes have been flooded by rising water in the Shkodra district, north of the capital Tirana and close to the border with Montenegro. A total of 10,270 hectares of farmland is flooded and 9,830 livestock are at risk. Because of serious damages to the water supply system, many in the flooded communities don’t have access to drinking water. There are damages to agriculture and transport infrastructure, making the area around Shkodra only accessible by small boats. Several EU countries, Moldova and Kosovo have responded to Tirana’s call for help by sending in boats, electricity generators, water pumps, food, medicine, tents and other aid to the flood victims. |  | | | |
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