Albania has become in recent years a magnet for foreign tourists. In addition to the recovery of tourism, another good news is the improvement of the quality of the waters used for bathing (seas and lakes).

According to a recent report by the European Environment Agency, 76.5% of the total water used for bathing was excellent in 2020, compared to 58.8% in 2019.

The biggest improvement was marked by the quality of coastal waters from 53.9% to 77.9%. Only 3.5% of the coastal water has a poor quality, from 11.8% in 2017.

Areas where water quality is poor are mainly in Durrës, Vlora, Saranda in parts of the city. Areas such as Dhërmiu, Lalzi Bay, Tale, Orikum, Palasë, Livazh, Kavaja, Seman, Zvërnec, Velipoja, Shengjin, Qeparo, Ksamil have excellent water quality.

Regarding the lakes, Pogradec is reported with good and poor quality, depending on the area; Tushemisht is reported with good quality.

Despite the improvement, water quality in Albania continues to be among the worst in Europe. The cleanest are in Cyprus, where 100% of the water is of excellent quality, followed by Malta with 96.6%.

In Croatia, 96.5% of water has excellent quality, in France 77.5%, in Greece 97.1%, in Italy 88.6%, in Portugal 89.2%, in Spain 88.5%.

The worst ranked in Europe is Bulgaria, where only 60% of water has excellent quality, Estonia with 62.5%, Ireland with 75%, Latvia with 68.4%. Netherlands with 73.8%, Romania 70 %.

(Source: Monitor)