Citizens and activists from the Together Movement protested on Friday in front of the Durrës Municipality, demanding responsibility for the massive floods that hit the city this week.
With banners and calls like "Oligarchs above water, citizens below water!" Protesters accused institutions of negligence, failure, and corrupt practices.
The recent floods caught Durrës unprepared. Entire neighborhoods were covered in water, while hundreds of families were forced to leave their homes and temporarily settle in private hotels, a solution taken by the government even during the earthquake of November 26, 2019, and during the pandemic.
Residents of the affected areas say that this is the second time in a winter season that they have been flooded. According to them, the rainfall was not unusual for the city, but the flooding occurred mainly due to abuses with the tenders for cleaning and repairing drainage channels.
"We've seen much bigger rains than that," said Vladimir Agalliu, a resident of neighborhood 15 in Spitalë. "But we've never had these floods," he added.
Activists stressed that the problem is not related to the weather, but to infrastructure and mismanagement. According to them, the drainage system is depreciated, overloaded and deliberately diverted to support the port concession in Porto Romano.
In this context, the Together Movement again accused the Municipality of Durrës and the concession company of the new port – owned by the Kastrati group – of closing the drainage channels.
According to them, the canals of Durrës hill have been blocked to facilitate the concession's work.
This process, according to the protesters, has increased pressure on the reservoir and worsened flooding. They demanded a full investigation into the port project, the diverted canals and their impact on the city.
The authorities have not publicly reacted to these accusations, while the Kastrati group has denied any wrongdoing. Citizens.al to be related to the flood.
Neither the Municipality nor the central institutions have provided official explanations.
Residents of flooded neighborhoods described a chaotic situation. Some of them were only able to receive aid after midnight on Monday.
Sadete Ymeri, a resident of the Iliria neighborhood in the beach area, said she was moved from her apartment around 02:30 a.m. She was taken to a hotel with only the clothes on her back because she had not been able to get any help during the day.
“We don't know what will happen,” she said as she described over the phone the flooding of her house and the trauma of waking up with water under her feet and the fear that something might happen to the children.
Activists from the Together Movement stressed that the floods cannot be justified as a natural disaster. According to them, the damage is institutional and preventable.
For this reason, they called for a declaration of a national emergency. According to them, the situation requires formal decisions and not political statements.
"Emergency is not declared with words," emphasized urban planner Artan Kacani from the Together Movement. "It is declared with a signature, a seal and criminal liability," he added.
The protesters also demanded real compensation for the affected families. They said that citizens cannot bear the consequences of the crisis alone.
A flood victim
The protest was also accompanied by demands for an investigation into the death of a municipal employee. According to activists, he lost his life during the days of flooding. The case is under investigation by the Durrës Prosecutor's Office.
The investigation includes the causes of death and institutional responsibilities for the situation.
The prosecution announced on Thursday that it has also launched verifications into the causes and consequences of the floods.
The focus is on infrastructure, maintenance and the actions of local institutions. So far, the Municipality of Durres has not provided a detailed response to the accusations raised by citizens, civil society activists and opposition parties.
Residents and activists say the lack of transparency is fueling distrust. For them, the floods are a symptom of a development model that favors construction over security.
A model that, according to them, is returning the crisis to normality. As the investigations continue, residents are demanding answers and guarantees.
The question remains whether the floods in Durrës, a city that has not yet forgotten the wounds left behind by the 2019 earthquake, will be treated as a serious alarm or as another forgettable seasonal episode.
This was the third protest after at least two others that took place on Thursday afternoon in front of the city hall. Meanwhile, two more protests have also been called for Friday.
Read also:
- Floods highlight crisis with emergencies and urban development
- Neither Veliera nor public tenders saved Durrës from the floods
- Albania faces climate crises without a reliable monitoring system
He completed his master's studies in the department of Journalism and Communication Sciences at the University of Tirana. She has been reporting for more than four years in Citizens.al on issues of culture, urban development, feminism, etc. She is also a contributor to other local and foreign online media, and has worked in the editing of various materials. She is the author of the podcast "Pezull" on Citizens.al and is engaged as a coordinator of projects related to the empowerment of young journalists and migration issues.
