On Sunday, inhabitants of the parts of the Shkodra region that were flooded in 2010–2011 protested on the main roads of the city, demanding the compensation promised by two consecutive governments. The protesters addressed the government with the slogan “Don’t single out Shkodra because of the political perspective.”
The total damages of the floods in that period are estimated at about €30 million. Although both the former Berisha government and the current government of Prime Minister Edi Rama have promised the inhabitants of Shkodra that 100% of the damages would be compensated by the state, the actual compensations have been slow to materialize.
In 2011, one year after the floods, the Berisha government approved €7.5 million for 7,563 families in Shkodra. When Prime Minister Rama came to power in 2013, he decided not to give the families any direct compensation, but instead to pay their outstanding debts to the Albanian Power Corporation (KESh). The government paid €1.75 million to KESh, but failed to take any decision about the compensation of those families who didn’t have any outstanding debts to KESh.
The total amount allocated so far by both governments, from 2012–2015 is about 45% of the total compensation that was initially promised. In spite of the constant protests of the inhabitants and promises of the government, no real solution has been found to this problem.
