Summaries of Interview Transcripts

Summaries of Interview Transcripts

Summaries of Interview Transcripts Transcript Summary for Maksimilijan Dhima 2 Transcript Summary for Andrea Papa 17 Transcript Summary for Ramiz Metaliaj 24 Transcript Summary for Shkelqim Goxhaj 32 Transcript Summary for Nensi Lalaj 36 Transcript Summary for Business Owner from Dajti National Park 44 Transcript Summary for Follow Up with Business Owner from Dajti National Park 46 Transcript Summary for Restaurant Employee from Ballkoni Dajtit at Dajti National Park 48 Transcript Summary for Follow Up with Restaurant Employee from Ballkoni Dajtit at Dajti National Park 50 Transcript Summary for Ranger from Dajti National Park 52 Transcript Summary for Resort Employee from Dajti National Park 54 Transcript Summary for Amparo Hiraldo 57 Transcript Summary for Edmond Pasho 62 Transcript Summary for Orjeta Jaupay 67 1 Transcript Summary for Maksimilijan Dhima Where: Friend’s Book House, Rruga Sami Frashëri, Tirana When: Thursday, Nov 7 2019 11:00am Team member roles: ● Lead interviewers: Jeffrey, Andrew ● Note takers: Emily, Olivia First Dhima gave us a presentation on the Albanian Civil Protection System, each organization’s responsibilities, and Law 45 on Civil Protection. We proceeded to ask the following questions: Tallan: Are prefects and municipalities difference levels? Are municipalities the city government? Dhima: 12 prefects each contain about 5 municipalities. Before 2014, they had a commune system and had about 280 of them. Now they combined to make 61 municipalities. Municipalities include some towns. Tallan: Is 4% of the budget sizable enough to carry out what needs to be done? Dhima: The 4% should be enough. There is room for investment at the central level. However, municipalities rely on 4% of the budget to ensure disaster risk reduction and civil protection, as well as other duties, and will have very little surplus. This is not 100% updated, and there is no official structure for the new systems. The 4% it’s logical for a time period, based on previous experience, and can be modified at any time. Tallan: How should innovative projects find funding? Can the public sector partner with the private sector? Dhima: Partnerships are an important framework for disasters. When civil emergency is declared, the private sector is obliged to support and spend. However a project such as this 2 may find PPPs to be ineffective. They are not so present in Albania so far. It’s a mentality, it’s quite difficult to find any similar project in history in the past. There needs to be incentives for private entities, such as tax exemptions or leases, because the technology will not create money by itself. Tallan: How successfully will law 45 be implemented? Dhima: From finance, starts everything. If we say we have a lack of technological or financial resources, everything starts from finance If they have finance, they have money to buy things like fire trucks, helicopters (Albania doesn’t have right now); they could even have money to buy drones. They don’t even have the necessary stuff for civil emergencies or protection or structure at the moment. Tallan: Looking at the current situation, is public pushing for this change? Or is it the experts recommending that the government must change? Dhima: It was experts. Many consecutive disasters - it became a need, experts were aware but a lot of finance necessary to deal with it. When a really bad earthquake in June (5.2 Richter, 5.8 in September, epicenter was nearby so a lot of damages) along with 2 mid-scale earthquakes hit, experts started pushing for a reform. The first versions of these laws were drafted in 2007 or so, it took 12 years to convince politicians essentially. The US report in 2014 helped a lot: Albania needed more international organization opinions to really sway it. Progress reports mentioned strategies and capacities that the government incorporated into Law 45. Tallan: Are you still involved with civil emergency government? Dhima: I had to retire. I was constantly working overtime due to understaffing. 4 people worked in shifts at a time, 8 people in total. (with people from the centers). There should’ve been 134 people employed. I would work 70-80 hours every week. I had to leave because I was spending all this time. I still serve as an expert, following closely on disasters and preparing reports. Tallan: What is the problem finding staff? 3 Dhima: It is very hard to find 150+ people with high education and doctorates without a civil protection school in Albania. Tallan: Do you know about specific regions in Albania under risk for fires? Dhima: Risk maps do not exist for fire. There are earthquake risk maps from 1989-, but not with intensities. Hazard maps exist for fire, but only 250 km from an area. Tallan: Where is disaster data located? Is it accessible to anyone? Dhima: DesInventar - can probably get good research on disasters this way, a lot of data. There are some graphs, calculations of damages, people hurt, agriculture to be measured. When sending letters to institution to ask for data, some of them are skeptical and felt like they are being personally attacked like Communist times. Tallan: Do you see fires getting worse with things like climate change and people burning the forests to develop more infrastructure? Dhima: As far as I am aware, a majority of forest fires are man made. However, climate change has worsened the situation of disasters as a whole. There is a need to invest more in a proactive direction and raise public awareness, it is very necessary to have the people prepare for these fires. Tallan: Can we find reports on how expensive individual fires are? Dhima: It is not easy to find the costs estimates, although the General Directorate may have it. There exists some reports and figures, but not all figures. I can send EU/UN report of 2015 which is about disaster records. Tallan: WUIs - where the forests and urban cities intersect - do we know if they are increasing in size and how fire management is handled in those cases? Dhima: Forest fires are normally isolated, occurring deep in the other forests in the mountains. However, there were huge forest fires in the past year. Small ones are normally under control and property is protected 4 Tallan: When structuring prefects and municipalities, who has jurisdiction over forests that are not underneath municipalities? Are there gaps? Dhima: There are some forests that protection agency has percentage of- They have a website which shows their percentage. The rest is under the municipalities, as they own the forests. Additionally, there are also small forests belonging to private persons. Prefect is always there, somehow organizing and coordinating all the municipalities. Prefects are nominated by the government, not elected. Tallan: How do you see drone programs being put into the emergency management plan? Monitoring or prevention? Dhima: Areas which are unreachable, especially with no helicopter would be the most likely application. It would be worth exploring if they can do other firefighting things One limitation is that they cannot cover huge areas. Sometimes helicopters are unavailable because their prime mission is defense, not suppression of forest fires. I am not convinced if the funding is there at the moment. If it was to be funded and implemented, it would be the first of its kind Tallan: Are there any legal restrictions for using drones? Dhima: Not as far as I know, but perhaps there are some for security reasons though. Follow up Questions by Email 1. How do firefighters bring water to fire fires in remote areas within forests? Are they transported on a truck, pumped from lake, etc? Dhima: In remote areas, firefighters have their main water quantity inside their firefighting vehicle. When they have at their disposal specific vehicles/water tanks, they transport additional water quantity on a track. Furthermore, where possible they pump additional water from lakes, streams or rivers. 5 2. In terms of compensation for damages from disasters, how much do municipalities pay vs. the Council of Ministers? How is this difference in compensation affected by the size and ownership of the damaged land and infrastructure? Dhima: Pursuant to the Council of Minister Decision No.329, dated 16.05.2012 there are two general scenarios for the compensation of private subjects damaged from the disasters: a. When the state of “natural disaster is declared”. In this case all the private subjects are compensated with 100% of their respective damages. b. When the state of “natural disaster is not declared”. In this case there are only families with damaged dwellings which are compensated with 50% of their damages. Dhima: As for the land damages, pursuant to the above CMD, farmers are compensated only when the state of “natural disaster is declared” with 100% of their damages. In this case a specific form for the damage evidencing is prepared. Unit prices used are those referring to the Ministry of Agriculture. Damage calculation is prepared by a commission led by the Ministry of Agriculture experts. In the past, losses for uncollected production of agricultural plants/crops have also been included in the total compensation value. There have also been exceptions to the general compensation policy after the floods of 2015 in South Albania. Even though the state of natural disaster was not declared at that time, an EU financial assistance through IPA funds was provided to the farmers with agricultural damages. As for the private infrastructure damages, they are treated equally with the farmers, namely only when the state of “natural disaster is declared”. In this case the working group/commission for calculating the damages in infrastructure is normally led by the respective line ministry.

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