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Foreign ships' wastewater-unloading main cause of Albania's coastal pollution: minister

Xinhua, August 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Foreign cruise ships unloading wastewater along the Vlora-Saranda seaside line to avoid taxes in European Union countries are the main cause of the pollution on Albanian coast, Albanian minister of environment Lefter Koka said on Wednesday.

The minister expressed his concern and warned to undertake measures against foreign cruises.

Albania is not a country that can monitor unloads of wastewater or oil waste in the sea, that's why foreign cruise ships unload wastewater in order to avoid high taxes in EU countries where they go, the official said.

"This is the reason why the seaside of Vlora and Saranda is polluted. This is a high damage for Albanian tourism," the Albanian daily news quoted Koka as saying.

He added that this phenomenon happened even during the summer season of 2015 and because of lack of equipments to monitor and photograph the coastline, ministry of environment, in cooperation with border police will inspect and patrol the seaside in order to reduce the pollution. Endit