"The government should declare a state of emergency and respond to the damages"/ Bozdo: Berat villages are at the mercy of fate

2025-11-26 10:43:00, Politikë CNA

"The government should declare a state of emergency and respond to the

The Deputy Chairman of the Economy Committee, Eno Bozdo, in a statement from the Presidency of the Assembly, has requested from the Ministry of Agriculture to calculate the damages caused by the floods to farmers in the affected municipalities. Bozdo said that in the Berat region, farmers in Kozara and Tapia in Kuçovë, Hingë, Samaticë, Goricani, Dronovicë, Ciflig, Arrëzë, Banaj in Dimal, but also in other villages and municipalities in the region are at the mercy of fate.

The MP states that for years, there has been no investment in repairing drainage channels in flooded areas, causing damage to farmers as thousands of cattle have drowned and hundreds of hectares of land and greenhouses are under water.

" In the last week, thousands of cattle drowned and hundreds and hundreds of hectares of planted agricultural land, greenhouses and fields, were completely flooded, leaving thousands of farmers in Berat, Korça, Gjirokastra, Saranda, Lezha, etc., who had invested the savings of an entire year of work in greenhouses and planted fields, to the mercy of fate. The fact that even after a week, the waters have still not receded clearly shows that the problem was not the rainfall, but the fact that the drainage sewers do not work!

The mud left after the waters receded has practically destroyed everything, and has made harvesting impossible, because vehicles can no longer enter the plots.

In the Berat region, the farmers of Kozare and Tapia in Kuçovë, Hingë, Samaticë, Goriçan, Dronovicë, Çiflig, Arrëza, Banaj in Dimal, but also in other villages and municipalities in the region, today find themselves at the mercy of fate!

Not because the rain that fell was unbearable, but because the local and central government has left the drainage infrastructure to the mercy of fate, without investment, without cleaning and without maintenance. This irresponsibility, today, is paying dearly for the farmers of Berat and all of Albania.

Because it's not enough that these farmers receive nothing in support of their production, but even when they are flooded due to the fault of those who govern, they are still left to the mercy of fate.

In this government, the Albanian farmer is despised, left aside, as the last and most insignificant citizen. No one remembers him except when elections come and they ask for his vote.

In the two municipalities where the damages to farmers are greatest, that of Dimal and Kuçova, it turns out that for many years not a single lek has been invested in the maintenance, repair and unblocking of agricultural drainage channels.

The two socialist mayors of these municipalities, seeing the damage caused, have an obligation to make public the data on the maintenance of the drainage channels. How much investment have they made? Which are the winning companies? What is their responsibility? But no such maintenance has taken place on the ground, and here the responsibility falls entirely on the local government.

Just as the municipality of Berat is responsible for the flooding and damage to businesses and parking in the city center, because the design and engineering solution was made incorrectly, there on the banks of the Osum River.

For this reason, I ask the Minister of Agriculture and local governments to calculate as soon as possible the damage caused to every farmer and every business in the Berat district and Albania, and at the same time I ask the Minister of Finance to allocate the fund for 100% compensation for any damage caused," Bozdo declared.