Ministry denies budget cuts in flood prevention

TIRANA, Aug. 18 – The Ministry of Agriculture has dismissed media reports that funds for flood prevention have been reduced after the mid-July budget cuts. In a statement, the Ministry says that 85 percent of its 2.4 billion lek fund on investments has been awarded for “irrigation, drainage and flood prevention.” The government has awarded 1.4 billion lek to build flood prevention infrastructure. Currently, some 50 percent of investments in the Kir and Buna river have already been carried out. The 2011 budget on agriculture, which Minister Genc Ruli says is biggest ever during the past 6 years, will focus on measures to prevent flooding in the northern Shkodra region following last year’s bad experience when several areas of the country’s biggest northern region were inundated five consecutive times during the year. The Ministry of Agriculture says it will start implementing a flood protection project as soon as a World Bank funded study is carried out on the hydro regime, river dams and drainage system of the Shkodra region where the country’s three biggest hydropower plants are situated. The Ministry expects to rehabilitate 30 km of dams for the Buna, Kir and Drin rivers flowing in Shkodra and take several other measures to rehabilitate drainage systems. Protection investments will also be made in the Korca lowland, in southeast Albania, in a 5,000 hectare area. Albania’s agricultural sector employs around 50 percent of the country’s population and produces 1/5 of the GDP. This important sector to the Albanian economy continues to be the least government-funded among the other four priority sectors of education, health, defence, and transport. The 2011 budget of the Ministry of Agriculture foresees a total of 68 million dollars or 0.51 percent of the GDP despite a 26 percent increase compared to 2010.