On the morning of January 6, floodwaters surged into Indrit Biba’s home in Porto Romano, destroying almost everything inside. The refrigerator, washing machine and most of the household furniture were rendered unusable, leaving the head of the family in distress.
Four months later, Biba is still waiting to be compensated for the damage, despite an earlier promise from the municipality.
“I submitted all the documents requested by the municipality, including the property ownership certificate and photographs of the damage,” he told BIRN.
Heavy rainfall at the beginning of January caused flooding in several areas of the city of Durrës and its administrative units, with Porto Romano among the worst-affected neighbourhoods.
Floodwaters entered homes, submerged roads and blocked residents’ movement, forcing some families to evacuate their houses. Authorities reported the evacuation of hundreds of residents and deployed hundreds of personnel on the ground to assess the damage and manage the situation.
The Durrës Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation to identify those responsible for the consequences of the flooding that struck the coastal city in early January, opening criminal proceedings on charges of abuse of office, destruction of property caused by flooding and destruction of property through negligence. However, the investigation appears to have stalled and has so far produced no results.
Affected residents complain that not only have they received no compensation, but they have also been given no information by the municipality about the progress of the process.
Astrit Prenthi, a member of a five-person household, told BIRN that because of the delays in compensation, he had been forced — with great difficulty — to replace some of the destroyed household items himself.
“I’ve asked several times at the administrative unit, and they keep telling me they are still waiting. They can’t tell us when we will be compensated,” Prenthi said angrily.
But the compensation process for flood victims appears to have become bogged down in bureaucratic delays.
In response to a freedom of information request, the Municipality of Durrës told BIRN that it was still carrying out the damage verification process and had yet to receive the funds allocated for compensation.
The municipality said it had set up a commission of experts to assess the damage, while administrative units were still in the process of submitting documentation for affected families.
“The Municipality of Durrës is currently waiting for the conditional fund allocated for this process,” the municipality said in its written response.
“All documentation will be assessed in accordance with the legislation in force, and the list of beneficiaries will be approved by the Municipal Council,” the response added.
The high number of people affected by the floods is expected to further complicate the process before any compensation is paid out. According to the municipality, financial assistance will therefore be handled by the National Civil Protection Agency.
For affected residents, the lack of a concrete timeline and the absence of regular information updates have only deepened the sense of uncertainty.
“I submitted all the documents they asked for, and still we know nothing,” Biba said. “We fixed what we could in the house ourselves,” he added.
In its response to BIRN, the municipality said that businesses affected by the flooding are not included in the compensation scheme. This is because the January 6 floods were not accompanied by the declaration of a state of civil emergency, rendering business claims ineligible for compensation.
Flooding has been a recurring problem in the Porto Romano area, partly because of longstanding failures in the drainage system. Porto Romano has repeatedly been hit by floods during periods of heavy rainfall, while residents have frequently raised concerns over the condition of the sewage and drainage infrastructure.
In response to these concerns, local authorities said that following the floods they had carried out interventions to clean drainage canals, unblock manholes and rehabilitate the affected areas.
“Critical points have been identified, and further interventions have been planned to expand and improve the capacity of the drainage system in order to prevent similar situations from recurring in the future,” the municipality said in its response.
