Tirana- When entering the houses in Fushë-Krujë it is not hard to see the line in the walls, the line which indicates up to where the water levels of the Zezë River have risen last time. When you go closer you can see that the line reaches approximately up to the height of someone’s neck and thus we understand that Mr. Hysen’s confession about the water ripping the lamp in the room upstairs off, still stands. His house is in the so called area of the rails, right by the river bed. Up until yesterday, the narrowness of a bend below the river line, who was not cleaned, had created a “stubborn barrier” with plastic which last time covered his yard with mud.

But he shows that in 2011 they weren’t as lucky and the water didn’t just stop at their garden. The weather was not favourable in the least and exiting the house was only made possible by using loaders. “We stared death in the face. Can you believe it?! I got 9 people out of here by using loaders. It came to the point that there was a flooding two times in a year. Material damages were of the least importance, the issue here is that there were lives at risk.”
Nowadays, involved more than ever in the project that is being implemented by the Albanian Development Fund, financed by the Albanian Government, for the full reconstruction of the Zezë Bridge (Ura e Zezë) in Fushë Krujë, as part of the project for the Zezë River system, he personally accompanies engineers that are working on expanding the river bed right below the wall of his house every day.

And he is not the only one. Miss Zelfie, his mother confesses that: “Out merchandise keeps getting flooded and there’s humidity everywhere. Last time they got us out they took me to my other son’s house who is located a bit higher up and no water got in there. The river has always been here my dear, but people came and built houses right next to each-other and there you have it now. Thank goodness these boys came and are working on it, solving the situation bit by bit”. Hysen is very hopeful and tells us that, “there was a storm two days ago, but no water got in my house now”. He understands very well that this is no coincidence that is only happening this year.

In an area of 5 km of intervention there are 1800 families that have gone through similar situations, the most difficult of these situations happening between the months of October-May.
At this point, the technicians of the project, A.Loshi and A. Marku behind the rails initially accompany us to Arrameras.

Excavations are ongoing there and the bed is being expanded up to the highway in a 4 km line, where to the left of it, farmland was previously flooded. Approaching the new bridge you can see that works are underway for the river protection on both sides of the river. That is where the gabions and flood walls were placed. And along these kilometres up to the centre, machineries and excavators keep working to expand the river bed. It was apparent that the workers themselves felt a moral obligation with the locals, to stop this chain of floods, because they had witnessed the situation and the disasters that had happened to each of the locals.

Up until yesterday, instead of flood walls and engineering interventions, the locals had placed car tires and sacks full of sand, in attempt to make a miracle, but that felt that they had to do whatever they could. The entire team of the project is taking care of every centimetre of action, because even thought the locals were sceptical at first, from time to time they will come out of their yards and ask about different details from the project.

It is clear to them that it is not just a bridge that is being constructed in the centre, but it is supervision in quotas and constructions alongside the Zezë River bank.
Meanwhile, in the city market who is just 2-3 metres away from the river bed in the centre, and young man who owns a clothing business states: “they are doing a good job. Now we no longer have to take jeans or winter jackets upstairs, which are materials that can’t be salvaged. We had no problems from the last storm. We won’t be fighting god. Just keep going and finish the works”.

And in one of the neighbourhoods nearby we can see that the infrastructure of almost all of the villas is that they have 2 floors and they keep aiming to go higher. One of the ladies jokingly said: “don’t be surprised, the first floor is for the river to inhabit and the second floor is for us. It had become very stressful and we kept watch day and night every time it would rain. The only way to go somewhere would be by using a speedboat or a helicopter. We were drowned in debt, but building a second floor was a must. The second floor provided safety for us while the water retreated. Last time we descended from the second floor the flood had left mud behind. Flower pots and old boards were moving around, we even had to take snakes out of there. We should at least be calmer now, we should have no more fear because we kept looking at the river”.

Part of them are still sceptical, but this is very understandable because they have had a rough and traumatic past, as some describe it, and during the years they lived with empty words being provided to the instead of a solution. Now, part of the inhabitants who had locked their uninhabitable houses are going back to fix them once again. You can find them rennovating their exterior doors or even their roofs, because despite the “caprices of the weather”, works show that the river is following its flow without rising up to their houses anymore.