The flooding has caused over $48 million in damage. Who will pay for it, the budget or the citizens?

When the budget is at its best, the government has a new bill to pay, caused by massive flooding in our country that damaged agricultural land, livestock, businesses, homes, etc.

Despite the fact that our country repeatedly faces the phenomenon of floods, the government has not come up with an accurate figure for the negative impact of this phenomenon on the economy.

This calculation has been made from time to time by the World Bank, while the government itself has not been transparent about the issue. According to a recent World Bank report, floods accounted for nearly 38% of all natural disasters that affected Albania between 1979 and 2019.

According to the annual world risk report, which calculates the disaster risk index for 180 countries based on exposure, sensitivity, vulnerability, coping, and adaptive capacities, Albania ranks first in Europe and 61st in the world.

86 percent of the total territory of Albania is prone to disasters. This area generates 88.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Average annual losses due to disasters are about 2.5 percent of GDP, while damages from floods average $48 million per year. These estimates cover private sector assets but not public ones.

While these damages have become annual, the government’s response to those affected has been weak. There have been cases where compensation funds were made available, but they weren’t even close to the real damages, and there was no transparency about their distribution. At this point, the question that arises is: How much responsibility will the government take for the current situation, and will it compensate for the actual damages?

Elisabeta Dosku/ SCAN

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