Inhabitants of several north-western areas of Albania have, as of several days, been subject to extreme flooding. A state of emergency has been declared. Prime Minister Sali Berisha puts the blame on natural causes – heavy rain and snow. The opposition Socialist Party blames the government for saving water to be used for hydropower plants during autumn, thus increasing its levels in the dams at this moment, which they contend is inappropriate management for the Drini River basin.
In the middle of a state of emergency, however, it may be wiser to focus efforts on alleviating the conditions of the inhabitants rather than exhausting them on a blaming contest. Simply put, it is of primary importance that all possible authorities and mechanisms are employed, by both the government and opposition, to normalize the situation in the flooded areas. People there are refusing to be evacuated. They fear their properties will get robbed. They will lose everything they have built up over a lifetime. In such a grave situation it is absolutely necessary that efforts are joined. It is encouraging now in fact that government and opposition authorities are pressing inhabitants to leave the area, and that international emergency relief experts might be called in.
It is only after this indispensable normalization that discussion of the blame can continue constructively. The current situation is certainly not due to purely natural causes. There has indeed been much rain, to the degree that perhaps some of the flooding could not have been avoided. However, the situation seems to have indeed been aggravated by a short-sighted kind of management of the hydroelectric plants of the Drini River basin.
A constructive debate to follow must take into consideration and carefully reflect upon the causes. The Drini River basin has three hydropower stations built during the former communist regime, the last in 1987. They produce the bulk of electricity for the country and for export in the winter. Everything has to be maintained in order to serve well, like a car, which we Albanians like so much now. We pay a lot to repair their parts and to put in fuel to drive. The Albanian government, however, has never spent a penny to maintain the power plants. There has been only some money from international institutions that helped to deepen the reservoirs and make some other, fragmented, repairs. All administrations in the past twenty years have done nothing but complete exploitation without the necessary maintenance investments.
Experts say there is a written regulation for the hydropower plants that should be respected to the letter. That means that side gates should be regularly checked every six months, to be opened, repaired, painted, oiled and the like. Has that been done? Not once as far as common people know.
Then experts, as well as common sense, indicate that in managing the waters, seasonal characteristics should be kept in mind. In winter, clearly, planning and management must take into account the accompanying rains and snow falls and keep water levels at those heights that can cope with any extreme weather.
Apart from serious drawbacks in management, thoughtless construction of houses must also come to the forefront of measures to be taken in the near future. No one can any longer afford to overlook the construction of houses in places that hamper the normal passing of water through canals, for instance.
