Bathing Water Quality Improved in 2020

 

TIRANA, June 4

Tourists and locals hoping to enjoy bathing sites certified clean and healthy this summer in Albania can swim unconcernedly. About 76.5 percent of inland and coastal bathing sites were considered excellent in the European Environment Agency.
The EPA has published the Bathing Water in Albania report for 2020. The report sets up the quality of bathing water in coastal and inland beaches. Overall, bathing water quality improved across Albania in 2020 compared to 2019.
The bathing waters are quality classified according to the two microbiological parameters (Escherichia coli and Intestinal enterococci) defined in the Bathing Water Directive. All EU Member States (UK included as it was still a member in 2020), plus Albania and Switzerland, monitor their bathing sites according to the provisions of the EU’s Bathing Water Directive. Albania ranked 20th among 31 countries.

Read also: Best Beaches for Kids and Families in Albania

A total of 119 bathing sites were monitored. Based on the results, the number of bathing sites classified as poor declined from seven in 2019 to five in 2020. The result marks a significant improvement if compared to the data from 2019 when 31 bathing sites were assessed as poor.
Overall, 95.8 percent of reported bathing waters are in line with the minimum quality standards of the Directive, thus classified as “sufficient” or better.
Moreover, 17.6 percent or 21 bathing sites ranked good and 1.7 percent or two bathing sites were classified as sufficient.
According to the report’ s map, the bathing sites with poor water quality in Albania are the following:
The Navy Academy Beach in Vlora
Shkembi i Kavajes Beach in Durres
The bathing site by the Sphinx monument in Durres
One Beach on Ohrid Lake by the Villas’ Road in Pogradec
One bathing site in one of Osum River tributaries near Vlusha village

In the meantime, Cyprus ranked first as all bathing waters were of excellent quality. It was followed by Austria, Greece, Malta, and Croatia.  On the other hand, the United Kingdom and Poland had the lowest rankings regarding the number of bathing sites that were of excellent quality.

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Top 15 Best Beaches in Albania

Source: eea.europa.eu

Photo by Polina Rytova on Unsplash