Floods, Minister Xhaçka in Parliament: A very effective and well-organized management of the situation

Published: Thursday, 14 December 2017 15:20

The Defense Minister Olta Xhaçka spoke at the plenary session of the Assembly regarding the recent floods and the commitment of the Armed Forces for the management of this situation.

Minister Xhaçka thanked the Armed Forces for their contribution during the most difficult times, considering their role as very effective and very well organized.

Later on, Minister Xhaçka cited the investments made by the government, without which the damages would be much more considerable, without forgetting to mention the compensation of the residents affected by previous floods.

Below is the full speech of Minister Xhaçka in the Parliament:

Honorable chairman of the session,
Dear colleagues,

coping with the situation of the last few days has been very effective, very well organized and I am glad that my colleague thanked the AAF for dealing with the initial situation or the initial emergency situation and I say that we are all maximally engaged to rehabilitate up to the final stage all those affected by the flood.

It was supposedly said that there were no investments, that the damages of the floods occurred in 2015 were not compensated. What does it mean that 2015 was not compensated? Don’t come here and make political declarations, but talk to the people; ask them if they were compensated for 2015, I would further suggest you go and ask them for the compensation during your mandate; why don’t you go to ask people of Shkodra if they were compensated under your governance, or our governance.

I insist one more time that this is not a three day story, but an arrangement that will last. There are different groups that are engaged with the damage assessments, which are coordinating their work between the Ministry of Defence, AAF, Local Authorities, Prefectures and the Operational Office in the Office of the Prime Minister to make a thorough estimation of the damages so that we can help each and everyone affected by the floods.

Can you please tell me who made the investments in Vjosa, or Seman, where there is a continuous tendency for floods, who minimized today the damage that could have been much considerable due to the large amount of inflows and rainfalls that were higher than ever before?

I'm telling you that we continue to be maximally committed for the normalization of the whole situation there, with the help of all residents and with all the interventions and cleaning of the infrastructure to enable the movement as well as make possible that those residents can turn to their normal life routines. We are maximally engaged in the construction and reinforcement of the bridges. You saw that in Darëzezë we constructed a bridge useful to 2500 people to restore the normality in that community, in a record time, for only 18 hours. We were in Van of Delvina where we just finished constructing a bridge with our engineering forces, which connects thousands of people.

We are going to Dropull where the bridge construction is starting there. We are maximally committed to cleaning and rehabilitating the roads in Gjirokastra, Fushë Krujë, Krujë, Fier and Urë Vajgurore. We are maximally engaged in the removal of water from the dwelling where is intervened even now at this moment, in the Municipality of Tirana, Vora, Fushë - Kruja, Kruja, Vlora. We have reinforced embankments and we have intervened in the Municipality of Tirana, Vora, Vlora, Fier, Gjirokastra etctj.

Again, we are maximally engaged in coordinating all the aid that is coming to assist and rehabilitate all those affected by the floods. The Ministry of Defense has also made a request to the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) for all the needs that are requested from local government and prefectures.

In addition, we set up a coordinating group for managing, storing, transporting and distributing these donations. The aids form the NATO member countries and other countries have been received at the border crossing points of the Republic of Albania and their transportation has been assisted by us. We have a very good co-ordination with the Local Government, with the Prefectures to make a best estimate of the damage, in order to not leave anyone out of our attention.

This is why, I would implore you not to bring the politic arguments even on this, because it is a situation that should unite us all together and I greet your position and your first three days attitude to be together. I also welcome your appreciation for the Armed Forces for the management of this situation. Be confident that we will do our best, far better than you have done in similar cases.