As flooding receded in parts of Albania on Tuesday, the Balkan nation's polluted waterways are being blamed for worsening the impacts amid fears that floodwaters filled with plastic waste could reach the Adriatic Sea.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/32779709

But locals and the country’s prime minister said the flow of waste into waterways exacerbated the problem, clogging already swollen rivers.’

"This year it was a real disaster. The riverbed was completely choked with plastic waste, swept away by the overflowing waters," Ramazan Malushi, a resident of Shkozet, near the Adriatic coast, told AFP.