Edjona Bici1, Anilda Kokali1, Arben Luzati1, Oltjana Petri1, Aida Demo1, Emanuel Dungu2
1Institute of Public Health, Tirana, Albania.
Aim:To assess the quality of coastal bathing waters on the beaches of Velipoja (7 sampling stations) and Shëngjin (5 sampling stations) extended in space and time.
Methods:Through this study, it was categorized the quality of coastal bathing water, as areas used for recreational and tourism purposes, during 2013-2018. This assessment is based on: Hygienic-Sanitary Inspection for the determination of sources of pollution (urban liquid discharges, used water discharged directly or indirectly into the sea), as well as the assessment of the microbiological load on water taken at sampling stations ( by defining two indices of fecal contamination: Fecal Coliforms (FC) of Escherichia Coli and Intestinal Enterococci (IE) respectively. Comparison of results was made based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as EU norms, Directive 2006/7 / EC on the quality of water for bathing (based on 95% percentile rating).
Results: Based on the comparison between the years taken in the study, for sampling stations on the beaches of Velipoja, concluded an improvement in the quality of coastal bathing waters in category A – Very good quality, from 57% to 100% in 2018. Whereas sampling stations on the beaches of Shengjin are categorized as very good quality for the whole study period.
Conclusions: For the period 2013-2018 there is an improvement in the quality of coastal bathing waters on the beaches of Velipoja and Shëngjin.
Keywords: bath water, coastal water, Shëngjin, Velipoja.