Sudden hailstorm severely damages farmers produce in Kolonja, in southeastern Albania

Farmers in several villages of Kolonja were seriously damaged yesterday as a result of the sudden hailstorm.

Their crops have been massively affected both in vegetables and in orchards and viticulture.
The most affected villages were Rehova, Taçi, Starja, Gjonçi, etc., where hundreds of hectares of fruits and vegetables and thousands of apple and plum trees, were almost destroyed.
“The rain and hail started around 4 pm on Sunday and lasted for about 1 hour and 15 minutes without a break. They did a lot of damage to village roads, rivers burst their banks and it did a lot of damage to orchards. It has caused damage in corn, wheat, rye. Rehova had a lot of damage, then areas of Starje and Tacci villages. We as an institution of the municipality have set up a working group which is going village to village to verify the damage. They are on the ground, we have also distributed the municipal pads on the roads that have been damaged so that the residents can pass. We have no damage in people or animals”, said Altin Zoto, administrator.
“Yesterday there was a disaster in the village of Rehovë, in fruit growing, orchards, everything went to zero. The work of March, April, May, June all went to waste. The worst thing is that in this region and at this time, no more can be planted. We have opened a guesthouse and I made the garden for this, all products are organic. So far they have not come to check the damage, maybe they will come later. We are dealing with the cleaning to get the guesthouse back in operation”, said an interviewed farmer.
For farmers, damages from unusual natural phenomena are a permanent concern for which they have not found a solution. The only responsibility of the local and central institutions remains the evidence of the damage suffered by farmers, but in no case is this accompanied by compensation or other relief policies for them.

Top Channel
Burimi