Author: Ola Mitre | Citizens.al | Tirana
In December 2010, Shkodra was engulfed by massive flooding. Houses, roads, bridges – everything under water. History repeated itself several times in the following years. A similar event occurred in late 2024 in Vlora. Extreme weather, devastating consequences.
Climate change is no longer a warning of the future for Albania, but a tangible reality. Floods, extreme droughts, storms or large temperature fluctuations have become frequent occurrences.
However, Albania continues to face them without a functioning central meteorological and hydrological warning system. This is a critical gap that is endangering water management, agriculture, and public safety itself.
"In the dark" in the face of extreme weather
According to the World Bank, Albania is among the countries most at risk in Europe from natural disasters. 95% of municipalities have been affected by floods, fires, earthquakes or landslides in the last two decades. However, the national meteorological and hydrological observation system is in decline.
The Institute of Geosciences (IGJEO), the institution that monitors and assesses natural hazards with the aim of reducing risk, admits to Citizens.al that the number of meteorological measurement sites has decreased from 116 in 2014 to 95 in 2025.
Modern equipment is often well-funded – by the World Bank, GIZ, or the Polytechnic University of Tirana – but poorly maintained. Manual stations remain dominant, but provide data once a day – a pace that leaves room for tragedy.
Experts such as Kristi Bashmili and Prof. Dr. Petrit Zorba raise concerns about the lack of reliable real-time data and the lack of coordination between institutions. Albania, they say, urgently needs a central data system and a modernized warning network.
Bashmili says that the high level of infringement by environmental factors "it comes especially from the lack of capacity to cope with climate change and its consequences in various sectors."
To cope with emergency situations without damage, Bashmili emphasizes that timely forecasts, reliable, multi-year, systematic data, as well as early and effective warning are needed.
"We don't have an integrated warning system for floods or landslides," says Prof. Dr. Zorba, from IGJEO, according to whom the available data is fragmentary, often outdated and not transmitted in real time to the institute.
The professor analyzes that what the current system lacks is standards in the use and maintenance of equipment, as it may be possible for the equipment to be modern, but these elements are missing.
He takes as an example 24 stations built by the Albanian Electric Power Corporation, which he says that despite being in order, have deficiencies in maintenance and usage standards.
"Standard doesn't mean having the latest cell phone that costs 1.5 million lek, you also need to know how to use it properly, especially meteorological equipment," continues Prof. Zorba.
"If you put a station on a concrete slab, concrete will produce high temperatures, if you put it in an area where the grass is 25cm high, it will not distinguish the elements and will report snow in July, so these technical elements must be considered, because good equipment, if not properly maintained and used, will not produce the right data," Zorba emphasizes.
The situation is similar for monitoring stations in the agricultural and airport sectors. Overall, the system is considered weak in terms of infrastructure, network density, data digitization, and human capacity.
"The network of meteorological stations is represented by many manual stations, which do not provide real-time information and need additional staff," Bashmili explains.
According to the Supreme State Audit Office, “National Plan for Climate Change Adaptation” remains without an official monitoring and evaluation methodology. The Ministry of Tourism and Environment has not approved such a methodology.
“In order to achieve the objectives of this priority action, an integrated monitoring program should be designed and approved, and a set of indicators should be regularly assessed,” says the HACCP in an audit conducted on the plan.
Consequences and need for intervention
In 2023, damages from natural disasters in agriculture, the food industry and other sectors of the economy exceeded 100 million euros for the first time. Part of this figure could have been avoided if the country had an efficient warning system.
Environmental expert Kristi Bashmili indicates that ongoing climate change with increased heat and cold waves has negatively impacted agricultural yields, quality of life, and the advance of the sea towards land, a factor that is significantly affecting tourism and lagoon and coastal ecosystems.
"We are dealing with emergencies triggered by weather conditions, which must be predicted in time and space, so that measures can then be taken to prevent possible damage," says Bashmili, according to whom the Albanian warning system requires strengthening the hydrometeorological network and services.
But, faced with the need for investment, funds remain limited.
The latest World Bank report clearly shows: the cost of investing in climate change adaptation is high, but inaction costs even more. Albania needs over $6 billion to cope with climate change, but the lack of coordination makes even this objective distant.
"Adaptation to changes greatly reduces human and economic losses from disasters and climate events," The World Bank emphasizes this in its Climate and Country Development Report, published in October last year.
IGEO says the country needs not only more measuring stations – at least one for every 100km2 – but also a variety of other automatic devices, which could generate periodic data with a higher frequency and accuracy.
According to Prof. Dr. Petrit Zorba, in addition to this need for equipment and stations, a central system is also needed for collecting, analyzing, and distributing data in a standardized manner.
"I'm not saying any"It's a great invention, but what other countries have done is that all over the world, data is collected in a center and then it processes it responsibly in terms of standards and releases it as a product," Zorba concludes.
If Albania does not build an integrated system, any storm, drought, or unusual natural situation risks turning into a national crisis.
