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Montenegro asks NATO to help with flooding

05 December 2010 01:13 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Montenegrin army has requested logistical support from NATO to help it cope with wide-scale flooding that has befallen this tiny Balkan country in recent days, reported Montenegrin Radio and Television on Saturday, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

Due to record-breaking rainfall an estimated 70 percent of Montenegro is currently threatened by flood waters. The Montenegrin Mission to NATO in Brussels has asked for assistance from its Euro-Atlantic Center for Disaster Management. Rubber boats, off-road vehicles, movable bridges, pumps, spotlights, generators and tents were requested to aid the evacuation of people and livestock.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the army has the capacity to provide food, water and basic medical assistance for the evacuated population from the 12 Montenegrin municipalities currently facing rising flood waters.

While rivers in Montenegro were at historical levels, they are in moderate decline due to recent snowfall in the mountains. However, Lake Skadar on the border between Albania and Montenegro continues to rise, breaking the previous high water mark set in 1963 by almost half a meter. Travel on the major road arteries throughout the country has been disrupted, due to ongoing repairs and damage brought about by the flooding.

"We have had large flood waves before," said Luka Mitrovic, director of the Hydrometeorological Institute in Podgorica. "We recorded them in 1979, 1986, 1993, but to simultaneously have 12 Montenegrin municipalities threatened by flooding -- practically 70 percent of the territory of Montenegro -- I believe that has not happened until now, at least not to this intensity."

According to Mitrovic, the severity of the flooding is due to Montenegro’s unique terrain, the intensity of precipitation and some man-made decisions.

The landscape of this mountainous Balkan state is predominately limestone, which does not easily absorb surface water. This fact coupled with increased population settlement along river valleys has made people more vulnerable to flooding.