Upon the request of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Waterworks of Budapest together with the National Directorate General for Disaster Management, Ministry of the Interior (NDGDM), launched a nine-member aid team on 19 February to the city of Selenicë in Albania. The extreme rainfall in January and February 2015 resulted in unexpected flood and caused significant damage in South Albania.
The continuous rainfall since the end of January resulted in extreme flood that already took victims. The flooded areas are along the rivers Vjosa, Drino, Osum and Gjanica and the situation is the worst in the South, in Vlora and Fier counties.
Two water experts left for the site on Tuesday, 17 February 2015 to assess local conditions, establish contact with local authorities and prepare the arrival of the mission. They were followed on 19 February by a convoy of trucks that carried the two pieces of water purification equipment, the volunteers to operate them and their facilities. The location of the mission was the city of Selenicë with six thousand inhabitants in South Albania, in Vlore county. The mission was 2 weeks long.
The voluntary water experts were responsible for operating the mobile water purification equipment that had already performed well several times either in Hungary or in foreign emergency situations. As a link and coordinator, the expert of NDGDM assisted the success and security of the mission with his experience gained in international aid missions.
The most serious problems in a flood-hit area are usually the emergence of diseases and infections and the lack of healthy potable water. The equipment taken by the aid team can daily produce 100 thousand litres clean water from heavily polluted and contaminated water, thus supplying a city of 50 thousand inhabitants with potable water every day.
The eight members of the mission from the Waterworks of Budapest volunteered to take part in this aid team, all of them had already participated in previous missions (Sri Lanka, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Transportation and security costs of the humanitarian aid mission were covered by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Hungarian State.
Waterworks of Budapest