"Ooo, don't let it burn, my river was full. It was like in Sawrah". This is how the elderly Gjergj Bashaj, who lives in Bregu i Lumi, says. He raises the concern of high pollution in that area, only four kilometers from the center of Tirana.
Gjergji claims that for years the community has been looking for a waste bin. In the absence of collection, he is sometimes forced to burn the remains, and sometimes to throw them into the river, "like everyone else".
Residents burn the remains on the riverbank
"That there is no boiler, from the boulevard there until May 5. We went 4-5 times as a neighborhood to look for the bins, and they told us to find the place where we drop the bins", he adds. "No sir, you are the state, I am not the state".
The same concern is shared by the elderly Rabie Hamza, a resident of Bregu i Lumi. She confesses that the bad smell and high pollution prevent her from going out into her backyard. "All this garbage is released by the mahalla, it collides here. Even by burning, the clothes become a sign that to burn them, I will burn them", - says Rabia for Citizens Channel.
Mayor of Tirana, Minister of Environment Mirela Kumbaro and Mayor Kamëz in November 2021, together with employees of these institutions, carried out a cleaning action in the River Bank area. Minister Kumbaro and Mayor Veliaj blamed the residents for the level of pollution.
"We are taking measures, we are fining the parent, to protect the child, because it is impossible to continue like this", - said Veliaj earlier. Two years later, the situation remains chaotic, with residents still looking for basic infrastructure to avoid pollution.
"Erion Veliaj comes with the show here", - quips the elderly Gjergj Bashaj. "He was here a couple of times, there were about 1000 people here, with soldiers and schools and hell with his son, he supposedly cleaned the place. O make the cauldron, you don't clean the river like this".
Gjergj Bashaj, resident of the River Bank
Despite the situation on the ground, Gjergji reminds the authorities that he pays the cleaning fee every month. "Why do they live like Babrroi, who go and get them once or twice a week. They take the residents out in bags and leave them at the gate, the pickup truck goes to pick them up".
Cleanup action on International Earth Day
River CleanUp Albania carried out the next action in the area of the River Bank on Saturday, on International Earth Day. This action will be followed by an international challenge on social networks, which aims to encourage people to engage in river cleaning.
"We launch a campaign for six consecutive weeks, clean for ten minutes with the hashtag #Rivercleanupchallenge", Margil Zani tells Citizens Channel. He says that the campaign aims for each person to engage at least three friends on social networks, to invite them to do the same.
Waste collected by River CelanUp activists on International Earth Day
Mirela Korriku, participant in the next clean-up, expresses regret for the scenes on the ground.
"We have always thought of the river bank as the saddest thing for the residents of Tirana. We have a metropolitan city with a luxurious lifestyle and not more than a kilometer away you have a very sad reality". - she says.
Foreigners and Albanians participated in the cleaning of this area, which raised the concern of the lack of recycling practices and waste separation at the source.
"I live in Switzerland. To dispose of garbage, we buy special bags. We have a garbage calendar that is cardboard day, paper day that is left in front of the house and these are recycled", - claimed Florian Haçkaj from the Albanian Diaspora for Citizens Channel.
Maylis De Verneuil is from France and has been living in Albania for some time. It raises the concern of the infrastructure for waste segregation, which although erected, is dysfunctional as the waste gets mixed together.
"It is a sin that in Tirana at the moment we do not do recycling. I know there are some containers: yellow, green, blue, it's a start. I just hope it becomes a habit".
"The river of Tirana is a dead river"
Environmental expert Lulzim Baumann was also present at this action. He shows that the current state of that area can be considered an "ecological bomb", where all types of waste and industrial waters are dumped.
"This river is dead, hard to find any fish. Neither the turtle nor the frog, which are better able to cope with adverse conditions, cannot live here", Baumann explains.
"What is more of a problem is what we don't see. The water in the river is very polluted and when we have a flood, we have a flood of land, directly in this case the land is contaminated", he continues, clarifying that the air is also polluted by air vapor.
Renato Zozi, a participant in this cleaning action, claimed that he used to remember clean water.
"I remembered that here 50 years ago, when we were children, we used to come and bathe in this river. It has been pure, wonderful. Now, well, there is a lot of garbage and the water also smells dirty. Fecal water", he says.
The Ishem River is considered the most polluted river in Europe. It crosses central Albania and every year pours 733.000 kilograms of waste into the Adriatic Sea, turning this flow into a worry not only national.
The length of its bed is 79.2 km and it is formed by the confluence of the waters of the Tirana River, the Tërkuza River, the Zeza River and the Gjola River, to flow into the Rodon Bay.
