TIRANA, Nov. 24 – The national operation “Cleaning Albania” began on Friday and in every city, neighborhood and school youth mobilized in order to gain a cleaner Albania. This operation is scheduled to end in the summer of 2018, aiming to preserve a clean Albania not just for its citizens, but also for the tourists and the tourism sector, which is expected to significantly grow in the following years.
“Together with 160 thousand other volunteers we are working throughout Albania and calling this a great day, a day where even more youth needs to join us so that together with local authorities we can continue working not just on this day, but during the entire 6-month-timeframe, so that tourism finds our country clean next year and with many similar operations to make sure Albania never sees this present kind of pollution,” Blendi Klosi, Minister for Tourism and Environment, said.
For the first time, neighboring Kosovo also joined this operation against pollution and waste, only a few days before both countries’ governments signed an agreement, among others, for the mutual protection and enrichment of the environment.
“Albania and Kosovo have natural beauties that are worth preserving. This is for me a first initiative including both Kosovo and Albania. I call all Albanians and Kosovars to unite and clean our country,” Albena Reshitaj, Minister of the Environment in Kosovo, said.
In Tirana, students of the ‘Petronini Luarasi’ high school joined the national initiative when, along with the Municipality of Tirana, they helped clean waste from different polluted areas in town. Parallel to cleaning the most key polluted areas in Tirana, the operation has also extended to the most touristic areas of the country, the national parks and the Dajti Mountain.
The improved infrastructure and the transformation that Tirana has undergone throughout have made the number of tourists visiting the capital increase 2.4 times. Within two years, the Municipality of Tirana has reformed the entire waste-cleaning system in the capital, aiming to significantly improve the quality of life.
