22/08/2026
Shocking aerial images circulating online have reignited concerns over wastewater pollution along Albania’s rapidly developing coastline, showing what appears to be heavily polluted water flowing toward the sea in an area visited by thousands of tourists every summer.
The footage has been associated online with Gjiri i Lalëzit (Lalëz Bay), one of Albania’s rapidly expanding tourist areas north of Durrës. The coastline is home to numerous hotels, resorts and residential developments, including major properties such as Meliá Durres Albania, Mövenpick Hotel Lalez Durres and Elite Bay Hotel Lalez Durres.
However, there is no verified evidence establishing that the specific discharge shown in the viral footage originates from any particular hotel, and it would be misleading to accuse an individual property without proof.
What is beyond dispute is that wastewater treatment has been a significant environmental challenge in Albania. International data have repeatedly shown that a large proportion of the country’s population has historically lacked access to adequate wastewater treatment, while untreated or inadequately treated wastewater remains a concern for rivers and coastal waters.
The situation around Lalëz Bay is particularly interesting because the area actually has a dedicated wastewater treatment plant. Albania’s River Basin Management Plan states that the Gjiri i Lalëzit wastewater treatment plant serves the tourist area of Lalëz Bay and Hamallaj, with treatment capacity expanded to serve up to approximately 30,000 residents.
Albania’s Ministry of Infrastructure has also documented major investments in the sewerage network and wastewater treatment infrastructure in Lalëz Bay, including a main wastewater collector, pumping stations and a treatment facility intended to serve the rapidly developing tourist zone.
More recent research published in 2026 lists the Gjiri i Lalzit wastewater treatment plant as operational, with a reported capacity of 15,000 population equivalents and tertiary treatment. The same study nevertheless notes that decentralised sanitation systems and poorly maintained septic tanks remain a significant environmental pressure across Albania.
The controversy therefore goes beyond one image or one hotel. Albania has experienced an extraordinary tourism boom, particularly along its Adriatic and Ionian coastlines, but infrastructure has struggled to keep pace with rapid construction and population growth in some areas.
Earlier Albanian public-health monitoring also specifically monitored bathing-water stations at Kepi i Rodonit, Lura Resort and the public beach beyond Lura Resort in Gjiri i Lalzit, demonstrating that water quality in the area has long been subject to environmental scrutiny.
For tourists swimming in Albania’s increasingly popular coastal resorts, the viral images raise an uncomfortable question: can the country’s tourism boom continue without putting greater pressure on wastewater systems, sewage networks and the marine environment?
The images may not prove that a particular hotel is dumping sewage into the sea. But they have once again placed Albania’s wastewater infrastructure—and the environmental price of its explosive tourism growth—firmly under the spotlight.
