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PEOPLEВ’S PERCEPTION ON FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT IN POLOG REGION

Agron Rustemi

Abstract

Damages and losses caused by floods have been on the rise in Upper Vardar River Basin (Polog Region) over the past few years. The entire river basin experiences dramatic variations in water flows over time, and the risk of floods is also exacerbated by the basin’s mountainous topography and land structure. Human factors are also at work. Changing land use and land cover – for example, through cultivation or construction in high-risk zones, rapid urbanization and heightened erosion from logging in forests – are altering hydrological regimes, increasing the risk of floods. Other causes include incomplete, poorly maintained, decaying or inappropriately used flood control infrastructure.The tragic consequences of the most recent extreme flood events, and the magnitude of associated damages and losses, revealed major deficiencies throughout all components of the overall flood management system (e.g., monitoring, planning, response and recovery). On 3 August 2015, after torrential rains lasting less than two hours, the region was hit by a combination of flash floods, torrential streams and landslides that caused six deaths and an estimated USD 21.5 million in damage (based on a UNDP-backed assessment carried out the for most affected parts of the basin). The Pena River inundated the center of the City of Tetovo and submerged many agricultural fields in nearby areas. The regional road from Tetovo to the Kosovo border was blocked by sludge that in places reached four meters high; and parts of the mountainside village of Sipkovica were buried in mud, boulders and rubble. For this purpose a baseline survey is going to prepare to identify people's and communities’ perception of flood and other risks, current willingness-to-accept certain risks and willingness-to-pay to mitigates risk to acceptable levels similar survey is planned for the end of the Programme, to detect likely changes in perception following a period of intensive community awareness programmes and campaigns.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/5.2/S20.056

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