Problematic sewers flood hundreds of homes in Durrës, residents speak out: Water took over everything

Residents of the former Kënetë area in Durres ran on Thursday morning to get what they could out of their homes flooded by the previous day's downpour. Caught off guard by the sudden floods that flooded their homes, residents blame faulty sewers and say the water reached up to 30 centimeters.

"I'm taking what I can because the water has reached up to 30 centimeters inside and has flooded everything, all the furniture and belongings," one of the residents of the area told BIRN, as he took a television and two children's school bags out of the house.

Residents of this area and several other neighborhoods in Durrës often face flooding as a result of problems related to the sewage system, but this time the floodwaters were faster and larger.

"I can't remember how many times the water floods here because the sewers have problems, but this time it flooded so quickly and couldn't be contained, so we couldn't take any measures," said another resident, near the houses surrounded by water.

Durrës was hit by heavy rainfall on January 29, which caused flooding in many neighborhoods of the city and suburban areas, as the sewage system did not keep up with the amount of water flow. In a statement released by the Municipality of Durrës, via its official website, the flooding of homes was one of the biggest problems left behind by the floodwaters.

"Water has entered about 300 homes, of which 200 houses are in the area of ​​Durrës i Ri, 60 in the area of ​​Shkozet and Plazhit, 4 houses in administrative unit 4, 1 house in unit 1, 20 houses in Sukth, 10 in Katund i Ri and 5 houses in Rrashbull", announced the Municipality. Residents affected by the flood were evacuated during Wednesday night and took shelter in the Kavaleshence building located in the Plepave area.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense responsible for civil emergencies hinted that the rainfall had caught the city's sewer system unprepared and only after the downpour did it begin unblocking it. "An excavator from the Directorate of Irrigation and Drainage has arrived at the High Water Canal to intervene and clean the canals," one of the ministry's press releases said.

In the Shkozet area, the flood has also caused major problems, with water entering 60 homes and surrounding hundreds of others. Residents blamed blocked manholes that were unable to drain rainwater.

"The two manholes on the side of the road were blocked and water flooded in from there, washing away everything," said a resident of the area.

Residents say they are used to flooding and whenever there is heavy rainfall, they take measures to cope with the situation themselves, but this time they were unable to.

"We went out to install the pump that we bought ourselves for 400 thousand lek, but we couldn't get it to work because the water took over everything," the resident added.

As a result of the blockage of manholes, which occurs whenever there is heavy rainfall, water began to flood the streets almost throughout Durrës. The situation became difficult in many neighborhoods of the city, where vehicles had difficulty circulating, while pedestrians' walking on the streets became impossible.

Water also entered several businesses located along main roads.

Due to the aggravated situation on the ground, forces from the Ministry of Water Resources, the Port Authority, the Drainage Board, and the municipality's public works enterprises were deployed and are working to remove water from the homes. In support of the forces on the ground, 2 high-capacity suction pumps and 3 high-pass trucks from the Armed Forces have been deployed.

In its announcement, the municipality said that the situation was brought under control, while announcing that the drainage canal system and the functional condition of the hydropower plants and embankments of the Erzen and Ishëm rivers, the dams of the watersheds and dischargers were being monitored.

The Mayor, Emiriana Sako, promised that work on assessing the damages would begin very soon and that they would be covered by the municipality's budget.

"I want to guarantee the affected citizens that we will do our utmost to assess the damage to the apartments as soon as possible and reimburse them from the municipality's budget," said Mayor Sako in a post on the institution's official website.

For opposition representatives, the situation and Wednesday's flooding are the responsibility of local authorities that have not functioned properly. "The situation created shows once again that the Municipality and Mayor Sako have completely failed in managing the city and that citizens' taxes have only been stolen and misused," the Democratic Party in Durrës said in a press release. Reporter.al