Flooding in Kosovo: PR as a Substitute for a Civil Emergency Response

On the cold night of January 6, dozens of families in Kosovo were forced to abandon their lives and homes due to flooding and nationwide reflection should have been profound. Fortunately, there have been no casualties by the time of publication, but images from that night show that the danger was real.

Expensive camera equipment bought with public funds were used to photograph politicians during their visits to the flooded areas of Kosovo this week, as resources that should have been directed towards emergency communication were used for political promotion rather than to instruct citizens.

In recent days, there have been no public alerts instructing citizens on how to prevent or mitigate flooding risks. Instead they were sent professionally produced posts, shot with expensive equipment and cameras, promoting politicians’ intensified engagement in responding to the crisis.

Beyond corruption in procurement, construction, and the exploitation of riverbeds, the recent floods once again revealed the systematic failure of Kosovo’s institutions to protect citizens and their property by failing to issue even basic warnings and guidance about flood risks.

In this digital age, Kosovo’s Agency of Emergency Management has failed to establish a hazard alert system. Consequently, citizens remain exposed to winter floods, frosts, and avalanches, and summer lightning, fires, and other dangers—threats that modern technology could easily help them avoid.

In a world where technology makes disasters predictable—floods, frosts, snow, even fires—Kosovo remains digitally unprepared. Bureaucracy and corruption continue to cost the citizens of Kosovo dearly.

Before the disaster, authorities sent out warnings of flood risks without identifying the areas or providing guidance on how to stay safe. Much of the disaster could have been prevented if public alerts were utilised correctly.

Footage of the flooding clearly shows houses that could have been protected with minimal effort. The tragedy is that no one provided guidance on the basic measures homeowners should take during floods, like how to deal with electrical hazards or how placing bags of soil or gravel at the entrance to a home can act as a flood defence. No institution provided these bags or instructed citizens on how to use them.

There were no instructions on how to handle front doors when water flooded homes, nor were there any warnings about what not to do during the emergency. We saw citizens trying to save their property, but all of them were left unguided.

We saw vehicles stuck in the water, not because of sudden flash floods but because drivers in this country are given licenses without merit and do not know how to behave in case of flooding.

So far, no one has issued guidance to drivers, not even to warn them against entering flooded zones.

Even worse, some people unnecessarily entered the flooded areas out of curiosity despite the water flooding shops and underground electrical installations.

With even minimal guidance, people would have known not to step into the water flowing over the city’s power lines.

Acting Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, advertises new equipment for the firefighters as many Kosovo cities faced flooding in real time.

The tragedy is that this is not an isolated occurrence. Similar floods happened two and three years ago, yet nothing has been done to prevent them, educate the public, or manage the risks.

All we saw were high-quality photos on politicians’ social media posts, showing that they had visited flooded areas during the crisis, but without providing any guidance on how the situation should be handled.

Cameras bought with public funds were used for polished publicity shots and not to warn or instruct citizens during this crisis.