Albania faces fifth day of severe floods | Youtube snapshot

Albania on Monday faced a fifth day of severe floods. Albania's government is considering ways to get homes and businesses insured against such natural disasters, to cut future compensation costs, sources reported.

According to the news reported, the heavy rainfall has resulted in flooding in many regions of the country, with numerous major roads blocked and flights in and out of the country stopped.

In the details, officials on Saturday said that more than 3,000 households were underwater, around 45,000 residents were without power while 3,016 hectares were flooded.

The Albanian government Saturday said that it had started work to carry a transparent assessment of the flood damages. Speaking at the meeting of the civil emergencies committee, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama assured all flood-hit farmers, businesses and households that they would be compensated.

Rama said that the investments made so far in the irrigation and drainage systems mitigated the flood effects. He added that some 6,400 police and soldiers have been sent to help rescue people stranded by the floods, calling the situation “very critical”.

"Fortunately, the consequences of the floods were less devastating than the floods in 2015 and this happened thanks to the investments made," Rama said.

According to sources, farmers were the most affected ones as huge crop losses and damages to the agricultural land have been reported and thousands of hectares of land are still under water.

Considerable greenhouse areas have been totally damaged by flooding, while losses in livestock continue to grow.

Torrential rain overnight caused chaos to Albania’s transportation system, blocking streets and stopping flights and ferries from operating.

An electrician from Albania’s state-owned energy company OSHEE has died and three others have been wounded while trying to reinstall power to parts of Albania after severe storms overnight left around 71,000 families without electricity and hundreds having to be evacuated.