The waters of Tirana's Artificial Lake, which is part of the city's only green lung, are systematically polluted by unauthorized discharges.
An audit by the Supreme State Audit Office that has at its core the pollution of the lake sheds light on the lack of institutional coordination and the failure to take measures to minimize the damage.
"Although state structures have identified since October 2024 (about 6 months ago) that untreated urban wastewater is being discharged into the Tirana Artificial Lake, currently, apart from written correspondence, no concrete measures have been taken to identify the causes and perpetrators of pollution, to take measures to immediately stop the causes that cause pollution, and to improve the environmental situation in the Tirana artificial lake. Inter-institutional cooperation to resolve the issue has not worked, a fact also expressed by the Parks and Recreation Agency structures themselves during the audit," the audit states.
The same document concludes that the territory of the Great Lake Park is not covered by the sewage network, consequently the entities operating within the park territory individually resolve the disposal of urban wastewater (e.g. through septic tanks). However, it seems that UKT and other institutions subordinate to the Municipality of Tirana do not have information on the way these entities operate regarding the disposal of urban wastewater; – "Within the territory of Lake Tirana, based on the contracts concluded with UKT, 10 private entities operate. Meanwhile, according to the responses of the APR, it results that 14 entities operate, so among the institutions there is no accurate evidence of the number of entities that operate in the PMLAT area. Also, from the field verifications of the audit group, it resulted that within PMLAT there are more than 14 entities, which, in the absence of a sewage network within the PMLAT territory, operate with individual solutions (such as septic tanks), which are not monitored by state institutions," underline the SAI auditors.
The auditors have recommended that the National Environment Agency take measures to carry out monitoring at the designated station in the Tirana Artificial Lake, according to the environmental indicators, frequency and methods set out in the National Environmental Monitoring Program, and to inform the Ministry of Tourism and Environment and the Municipality of Tirana of the results of these analyses.
Likewise, the Municipality of Tirana and the National Environmental Agency should take measures to establish an inter-institutional group, with representation from institutions subordinate to the Municipality of Tirana and central government institutions according to the respective fields of activity, to:
Identification of all points of discharge of used/polluted water (urban, industrial, etc.), including the points identified by the audit group, in order to:
Monitor rainwater channels, to identify illegal discharges of used water into these channels;
Immediately terminate illegal connections;
Identify polluters and take administrative measures against them according to legal provisions./Monitor.al
