TIRANA, April 8/ATA/ The “Flood North Albania” international exercise, a coordinated simulation for coping with floods, has officially started in the city of Shkodra and will last until April 12, 2025.
At the opening ceremony, Director of the National Civil Protection Agency Haki Çako highlighted the significance of this initiative in Shkodra, a territory that is known and often challenged by the natural risk of floods.
According to Çako, this is an important event that aims to test international cooperation in coping with floods and natural disasters in a coordinated manner.
“This project consists of a comprehensive scenario that will simulate the management of a large-scale flood, which aims to improve decision-making, will enable the sharing of capacities and resources, the use of innovative tools and joint training.
“With the participation of 8 Member States, this exercise will test and improve national and international coordination procedures under the monitoring of DG Echo representatives”, said Çako.
“After a commitment of almost 1 year, this exercise will be crowned with a calendar of parallel activities in several exposed administrative units, testing and strengthening the links between teams from seven countries in the region – Italy, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Cyprus – which are engaged with their specialized water search and rescue capacities and the logistics necessary for flood response”, said Çako.
According to Çako, “On the ground, there are over 450 people and 60 vehicles, including motorboats, high-capacity motor pumps, drones, ambulances, trucks, a real testament to the contribution and solidarity of each one”.
Çako expressed his conviction that, “By working together, we will be able to develop new skills and support each other in facing the challenges that emergencies may bring, as well as improving preparedness and response capacity to natural disasters”.
This project is funded by DG ECHO, the European Union and has started in January 2024 and ends in December 2025. The leader of this project is the National Civil Protection Agency of Albania and this partnership includes, in addition to Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. /r.e//a.f/p.s./
