Not too far from the start of the tourist season, the coastline along Durres and Kavaja has very few public beaches to offer, as opposed to private ones.

And even the remaining public beaches fail to meet the most basic standards.

Sparing money to go on a public beach in Kavaja, might pose a risk of swimming near sewages, as in many cases wastewater is thrown directly into the Adriatic.

Repeated promises and investments don’t seem to have solved the problem in the region.

“There are no controls, and the government doesn’t see what happens here. Some 30 Polish tourists came yesterday and were forced to gather here”, said a local while complaining about the small confined area caused by the construction of two major resorts.

“This is the only public beach left”, said another tourist.

The same problems are raised by the citizens of Durres.

Despite its four-kilometer coastline, Albania’s most popular beach has not been cleaned up yet.

“The shore is filled with seaweed because the city hall cleans it up very rarely. Also, the people leave their garbage on the beach”, said a tourist.

The major problem for citizens remains the lack of public spaces.

“All we have is a 100 square meters public beach. We have no space”, said a citizen.

Euronews Albania sent an inquiry to the City Hall to understand how public spaces are distributed, but our request was refused by the institution.

The coastline of Kavaja is 22 kilometers, with 198 plots of private beaches and only 40 public beaches.