TAP Donates A New Fleet of Firefighting Vehicles to The Civil Emergencies in Albania
As part of its Social and Environmental Investment (SEI) programme, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline donated a fleet of 16 firefighting vehicles to 10 municipalities across the route of the pipeline in Albania.
Tirana. Albania as part of its Social and Environmental Investment (SEI) programme, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline donated a fleet of 16 firefighting vehicles to 10 municipalities across the route of the pipeline in Albania. The donation is part of TAP’s SEI “Capacity Building for Firefighting Brigades” project, a € 2.1 million investment aiming to support the Fire Fighting system across 10 municipalities in the country.
On June 27, TAP and the Ministry of Defence organized the fleet’s handover ceremony. The event was attended by the Minister of Defence, the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia, the Director of Agency for Civil Protection, the Director of the Firefighting Service, prefects and mayors of the municipalities benefitting from the investment.
The project started back in 2019 and was developed in stages. Initially, a specialized institution assessed the technical conditions of the fire brigades in the 10 municipalities and identified their needs. Based on this assessment, an international curricula training programme was designed by specialized partners and was offered to all the fire brigades of the 10 municipalities along the pipeline route. In total, 168 firefighters were trained for almost 40 days. Finally, TAP launched an international tender to identify the fleet supplier. Webo Maribor Slovenia, a company with a robust international experience in the firefighting sector, was selected through this tender.
The new firefighting fleet, which consists of 16 vehicles (7 trucks and 9 pick-Up vehicles), is fully compliant with the EU standards and is covered by the necessary guarantees.
Mr. Luca Schieppati, TAP’s Managing Director said: “What we are all witnessing here today was made possible thanks to our close collaboration with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, the Civil Emergencies Authorities, the Firefighting Institutions, the Ministry of Interior, and internationally certified firefighting institutions. Among all the other benefits this project will bring to the fire brigades in Albania, it also will create a unified firefighting fleet across these 10 municipalities which is expected to improve the efficiency of the local firefighting efforts.”
Mr. Niko Peleshi, Minister of Defence said: “This donation of the 16 firefighting vehicles to the municipalities across the pipeline’s route we are celebrating today, showcases TAP’s social responsibility and community support efforts. By enhancing these firefighting capabilities, our municipalities, prefectures and communities are better protected against natural disasters, since in Albania fires are occurring throughout the year.”
Mr. Haki Ҫako, Director of the National Agency for Civil Protection said: “The initiative we celebrate today shows the breadth of the scope of the civil protection system and proves that everyone can contribute to coping with disasters. For this reason, I hope that this initiative will further improve the cooperation among us, as everyone has a role to play in ensuring disaster risk reduction and civil protection.”
