A recent court verdict on the quality of drinking water in the Albanian capital stirred a debate between President Ilir Meta and Tirana Water & Wastewater Utility.

In a Facebook post, the president said the verdict revealed “the irresponsibility” and “dysfunctioning” of UKT, putting to “risk the health of the citizens” and called for an immediate “probe from the prosecution”.

In another post, the President said that the water distributing company is disinforming citizens on a matter that “has been going on for five years”.

On the other hand, the company insists that “the situation has changed” and that “water quality and distribution has improved”, proved also by “continuous analysis conducted not only by UKT, but also by the Hygiene Directorate”.

“UKT wants to assure the citizens of Tirana that it upholds national standards in the drinking water quality”, wrote the company in its reaction.

“Analyses are conducted on a daily basis in 16 samples on 7 physicochemical parameters (color, smell, taste, turbulence, ammoniac, nitrite, residual chlorine) as well as 3 microbiological parameters (total coliforms, Escherichia coli, streptococcus fecal)”, added the water supply company in its statement.

The verdict mentioned by the President is over a case raised by Res Publica in 2016-2017, an association providing legal support on issues representing the interests of the public, about bad water quality in Tirana – containing a higher mass of microbes and chlorine than the allowed norm.

On Monday, the association said that the First Instance Administrative Court of Tirana admitted that “the quality of water in 2016-2017 in Tirana was generally not in parameters to be considered as drinking water”.

Following the claims, the court assigned Res Publica with “monitoring UKT on the measures and analysis conducted on the water supply”.