A few days ago, the Tirana municipality headquarters were flooded as a result of heavy rainfall.
Skënderbeg Square’s irrigation system was seemingly unfit to receive the heavy rainfall and, consequently, the building’s ground and basement floors were flooded.
The municipal archive, where all the city planning documentation, including construction permits, projects and city plans, are held, was substantially damaged.
As one can see in the above picture, municipality staff has attempted to dry out part of the documentation by lying them out on the floor or hanging them in the corridors.
The construction of the underground parking lot and the recent changes made to the Square have disrupted the irrigation system underneath the square, causing the surrounding buildings to be flooded routinely.
Ironically, the flooding took place a day after the Barcelona Center of Contemporary Culture awarded Skënderbeg Square the European Prize for Urban Public Spaces of 2018, a prize mayor Erion Veliaj has been aggressively promoting for more than a week. However, nature itself now appears to have debunked this propaganda campaign.
