TIRANA, March 29 – As weather conditions improve, the Shkodra Lowlands flooding over the last three weeks due to hydropower plant water discharges are starting to resurface, but are still facing issues with drinkable water, providing food to their kettle and massive pollution of their properties, as well as destroyed public infrastructure.
According to local authorities, the surface of drowned areas has dropped to 3670 hectares and 350 houses remain surrounded by water, while the Drin Cascade hydropower plant has interrupted mandatory discharges.
The most damaged and problematic areas are the Daqi and Ane e Malit villages, particularly Obot Village, with about 150 houses. In this context, migrant youth coming back to visit their parents after the floods told local media the annual floods are the reason citizens have lost hope of living there, while the region’s youth is immigrating.
“I come from Obot village. As you can see, this is where they built the elementary school, that is now completely flooded, and there is no one my age who will live here, work here and make a future for himself here. I wanted to create a future in my country, but in 2010 the same thing as now happened, and I decided to leave to Italy,” Gjon Ejlli told local media.
In 1971, when the Vaja e Dejes hydropower plant was built, the Obot and Ana e Malit villages were announced water expansion areas in cases of big water flows due to rainfalls and discharges. At the time, the government moved the habitants to a new village built for them at the hills of Ana e Malit.
After 1991, however, with the system change, villagers went back to old Obot without predicting they would flood each passing year.
According to Ejlli, the government should provide a solution to this problem which has made living in Obot unmanageable.
“Obot doesn’t even appear on the map. I made my house here, I go to the mortgage office and they ask me where Obot is. The government should orient us on where to go, make an analysis whether this is an inhabitable area or not – if it’s not, get rid of it,” Ejlli said.
Mirroring the opinion of other area youths, Ejlli added that despite his wish to return to his village, made up of 150 houses and a number of private farms and businesses, offers little to nothing for its inhabitants, and especially its youth.
