TIRANA, May 12 – Albania needs to invest more in preparedness to reduce and mitigate impacts from natural disasters that could pose serious damages to the economy and to the well-being of the population, says the World Bank.
“Our key message for Albania is that there is an urgent need to accelerate the shift from taking a remedial approach by responding to emergencies, to a more proactive and forward-looking approach by identifying potential hazard risks and preparing itself in the medium and long term,” said Tahseen Sayed, the World Bank country manager for Albania at a training on disaster risk financing and insurance.
Albania also faces risks of natural disasters, with the country prone to a wide variety of natural hazards, including floods, forest fires, earthquakes and snowstorms, that could pose serious damages to the economy and to the well-being of the population. The country has experienced medium and large disaster events – there were major floods in December 2010 in the Lower Drini-Buna River Basin costing the Albanian economy EUR 37 million, while the recent floods in February 2015 in the southern areas of Albania caused significant damages to infrastructure and agricultural livelihood.
“There has been progress in risk transferring through insurance. However, there is a need to expand insurance penetration as well as to explore other ex-ante risk financing measure such as contingent budget/reserves and contingent financing, etc. A comprehensive and effective financial protection against natural disasters requires a systematic understanding of various risk financing options and measures,” says Sayed.
“Together with the improvements on catastrophe insurance, it is crucial to explore ways to financially prepare for disaster impacts through developing a more comprehensive and effective financial protection against natural disasters,” she adds.
The World Bank has been supporting the Albanian government to reduce and mitigate disaster impacts through several projects since 2009
Albania regularly suffers from floods, which are problematic for agriculture when they delay the planting of crops or destroy harvests. Projections up to 2050 for Albania indicate that flooding events could increase in both frequency and intensity under the influence of climate change.
Insurance coverage of natural hazards among Albanian homeowners and small and mid-size businesses is almost non-existent (only 1-2 houses out of 100 currently have private catastrophe insurance coverage), which in case of a major event would have to appeal for government help, says the World Bank.
