To ensure compliance with Law on noise management, authorities have conducted standardized noise tests across various indoor and outdoor venues in tourist zones. All measurements have confirmed that businesses were operating within permitted limits.

Durrës Police is actively enforcing music curfew regulations to ensure a peaceful environment for residents and visitors. Outdoor music in residential areas is strictly limited to the 11:00 to 24:00 window, with officers continuously monitoring noise levels. Police urged the public to report any violations for immediate police intervention. /k.s/j.p/r.e/p.s./

Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) has released images showing the extent of the environmental damage at one of the country’s most visited summer destinations.

Beach pollution in Velipojë caused by river inflows - Photos by Florian Abazaj

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Municipal cleanup crews from Shkodra have been working intensively along the coastline to clear the debris.

ATA photojournalist Florian Abazaj captured scenes of both the polluted beach and the ongoing cleanup efforts at Velipoja, which attracts thousands of holidaymakers each year.

Velipojë Beach cleanup - Photos by Florian Abazaj

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Albpetrol issued a statement on Saturday after Ulrich Eichelmann, CEO of environmental NGO Riverwatch, posted a video on social media recently showing oil residues in the river near the Gorisht-Kocul oil field in southern Albania.

The state oil company said the field, in operation for over 60 years, had accumulated waste during earlier decades when environmental standards were less stringent. The company emphasized that no new polluting activities are currently taking place in the area.

“The company is fully committed to rehabilitating the section of the river affected by the oil-bearing zone, within technical and financial capacities, and in the shortest time possible,” Albpetrol said in its statement.

It added that the pollution is more visible during periods of high temperatures, as residual oil is mobilized from older waste deposits.

Albpetrol noted it has prioritized environmental protection in recent years, in line with government policy and national strategies, and is gradually reducing inherited waste volumes through officially approved remediation plans.

The Vjosa River, often described as Europe’s last wild river, was declared a National Park (Category II) in 2023. The designation extends full protection to the river and its tributaries from source to sea, under both national and transboundary conservation frameworks.

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Minister of Defense Niko Peleshi, in a post in the social media, wrote that the exercise aimed to test the skills of the crews of special anti-pollution vessels for the use of equipment, mechanisms, tools and techniques for responding to a marine pollution.

“The “Antipollution 2024″ exercise, one of the main activities of the Naval Force, took place this year in the Bay of Durrës to test the skills of the crews of special antipollution vessels for the use of equipment, mechanisms, tools and techniques for responding to a marine pollution”, wrote Peleshi. /p.s./

Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku, at the same time the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, as well as Minister of Tourism and Environment Mirela Kumbaro held a meeting today in Durrës with relevant actors of the tourism sector but also other institutions in the country to present the new action for control of the management of polluted waters in tourist areas.

Deputy Prime Minister Balluku stated that this task force is being set up to protect and improve the quality of water on beaches by the sea, lakes or rivers, on the threshold of the start of the 2024 tourist season, where, as she put it, “We shall impose non-negotiable obligation for all subjects of the tourist industry to be equipped with the appropriate plants, to have zero pollution in the coastal waters”.

Balluku spoke of zero tolerance.

“The subjects have 90 days to set up the wastewater treatment plant. After 90 days, the task force is entitled to impose the first administrative measure and gives the subject 60 days deadline to fulfill the obligations. If, even after this deadline, the subject has not taken the appropriate measures, the task force takes other defined measures that go up to the closure of the activity. This is a zero-tolerance approach,” she said.

Today, Balluku emphasized, 83% of the territory in the urban areas is covered with sewers, while in the rural areas the sewers amount to somewhere around 18%.

On her part, Minister Kumbaro said that large tourism businesses should undertake integrated waste management.

According to her, this is important, as this year there is expected a high flow of tourists. The data, she said, show that, so far, there are 30-40% more contracts than in the same period of 2023 for the summer tourist season.

“The task force will be on the ground all the time to coordinate the measures and ensure a clean environment”, stated Kumbaro./r.e/p.s./

The Directorate reacted in this way to an article of the “Monitor” magazine on the impact of cars in the air quality.

In regard to claims that there has been an increase in the number of cars that use diesel oil, the Director said that these cars amount to 71% of the total vehicles and this figure has not changed during the period 2015-2022.

Beginning from 2018, Albania has also banned the import of 20 years old cars and more. And there has been a reduction of the number of the old cars in circulation by +48% if compared to 2021.

“We have a record of reducing pollution as a result of a much more meticulous Technical Control. Limited import, Euro 4 and above criteria for the used cars and Euro 5, 6 and above for new cars! 15 years old and below for used Bus and Truck, Euro 5 and above when these vehicles are imported new”, is read in a press release of the Directorate.

Meanwhile, All Electric cars consist of 17% of the total number of the cars.

The Directorate also emphasized the fact that the average age of the local car fleet in Albania is 17.5 years old. And during the last 3 years, the average age of the registered cars is 12 years. /m.m/p.s./

Rama posted in the social media a video from Golem, where a person is seen throwing waste on the street.

“A fine of one million lekë is not enough for the gentleman who at the peak of the tourist season in Golem throws the waste on the street because the sanctions for these brazen polluters must be harsher, as much as possible, so that to protect Albania from these irresponsible species”, wrote Rama.

The prime minister encouraged the State Police units not to relax their vigilance against acts and denunciations of environmental crime.

“Congratulations and further encouragement to the State Police so that not to relax their vigilance against environmental crime acts and denunciations”, he wrote./r.e/p.s./

The National Environment Agency on Friday conducted field inspections, ascertaining large quantities of waste dumped in the territory of Razma.

Therefore, the agency decided for the immediate application of a fine of 500,000 new Lek directly to the mayor of Malësia e Madhe.

The fine against the mayor is provided by the law “On waste management”, which was approved in 2011, but this sanction that directly punishes the highest head of the municipality has never been applied.

The move against Tonin Marinaj, who thus becomes the first mayor to be punished for waste mismanagement, comes at a time when the environment has been declared an absolute priority by the government.

From the beginning of November, the National Cleaning Plan continues throughout the territory, in coordination with the prefects of the regions and all central and local institutions.

In all the open meetings organized with the mayors, Prime Minister Rama and the Minister of Tourism and Environment Mirela Kumbaro have asked the municipalities to budget with priority the cleaning of the territory, as otherwise their budgets for 2022 will not be approved, while waste will be deposited only at licensed spots./p.s./

After exercising control in “Bankers Petroleum Albania” Co. in Fier, the Inspectorate found out that the company has not respected the conditions of the environmental permit for the removal of hazardous waste and as a result has contaminated the area. The administrative measure imposed on the company was a fine in the amount of 2,000,000 Lekë and the activity was suspended “, said the Inspectorate.

The Inspectorate reiterated that it continues to work on supervising and controlling implementation of the legislation in force in the field of environmental protection and punishing every illegal interference with consequences on the environment. /a.a/p.s./

While providing the results of the analyzes carried out by the Institute of Public Health, Ulqinaku said that, “The enterococcal bacteria have polluted only one point of the water supply system of Kruja, and that is thought to be the cause of the gastrointestinal disorders of the inhabitants”.

“The situation we are talking about today is very calm. Almost all worries in the medical center and in the hospital of Kruja are over. We will continue to follow the situation rigorously “, said Ulqinaku.

He stressed that, “This is an epidemic caused by water as a result of pollution of the surface waters of the rains that fell a few days ago, which have mixed further with the drinking water of the water supply of Kruja”./m.m/j.p/r.e/p.s./