Northern Albania under water

TIRANA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Northern Albania, especially district of Shkodra, has been under water for many days, with roads and hundreds of acres of land completely flooded, local authorities informed Wednesday.

After a government meeting on Wednesday, Albanian vice premier Senida Mesi told reporters the government had not accepted the request of Shkodra Mayor Voltana Ademi to declare a state of emergency.

However, Mesi said the government had decided to send more personnel to help residents and local authorities better cope with the flood. Food and medicine have also been sent to the flood-affected zone.

Obot, a village in Shkodra, is almost submerged. Residents are using boats as a means of transport. The entire area of Nen-Shkodra has no tap water.

Meanwhile, farmers in the area are complaining of a lack of food reserves for their livestock. They also sought government's help, saying the land wouldn't be able to produce harvest when the crops are destroyed.

Local authorities also said that despite the efforts and assistance of military personnel and civil emergency staff, the situation was still difficult.

They said that there are about 4,698 hectares of land which have already been flooded in Shkodra. Hundreds of houses are still under water and a significant number of residents have been evacuated.

Although Albania's north is the hardest-hit region, problems were reported Wednesday even in the southern part of the country, especially in the Gjirokastra and Vlora regions where some rivers burst their banks, flooding dozens of hectares of agricultural land and roads.

Albania has seen continuous and heavy rainfall in the last two weeks. Enditem