TIRANA, Feb. 18 – The Gjirokaster citizens that were affected by last week’s severe mudslide, which risked the total collapse of a building and damaged several houses and a road segment, protested this weekend at the national highway across Gjirokaster for the lack of measures against mudslide damages.
Protesters said promises to remove the amounts of mud and ground from their homes and the humidity were not delivered, in addition to a lack of life safety guarantee.
As reported by local media, the Gjirokaster municipality reimbursed the citizens who experienced big economic damages using its emergency fund, but the amount was still minimal to cover expenses so the municipality asked the government to announce an emergency situation for the entire city due to its inability to cover reimbursement costs.
The workers sent to remove the dirt massive that overtook the eight-floored building home to 21 families reportedly interrupted its removal, waiting for another group of experts to re-evaluate the situation.
Severe weather conditions throughout February caused a number of damages in UNESCO protected Gjirokaster, a number of whose villages were recently selected to be infrastructurally upgraded under the 100 Villages cultural program.
The downpours caused the complete isolation of the Zhularat village and its population, potential distraction of an additional 40 houses and an archeological site due to the overflowing of rivers, as well as damages on roads linked with the country’s main highway.
