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Porto Romano and the state's failure to meet European standards

2026-02-05 15:11:00, Opinione Fjoralba Dizdari

The recent developments made public regarding hazardous waste in Porto Romano are further evidence of what has been warned about for years, but ignored, Albania is being treated as an unprotected territory, where the environment, the health of citizens and public safety are sacrificed through state irresponsibility and lack of institutional accountability.

According to the investigations of the Durrës Prosecutor's Office, it concerns about 2800 tons of hazardous industrial waste, which have remained for more than a year in Porto Romano, near residential areas, without any final solution and without transparency towards citizens. For more than a year, an entire community has lived next to a silent danger, without information, without security and without any guarantee that its life and health are a priority for the state.

This situation becomes even more worrying at a time when Albania has officially opened negotiations for membership in the European Union. Hazardous waste management, public health protection and institutional transparency are essential parts of the basic criteria of the accession chapters. What is happening in Porto Romano clearly shows that, despite the official rhetoric, European standards still remain far from the daily reality of Albanian citizens.

About three weeks ago, the city of Durrës was hit by significant flooding, which also affected the Porto Romano area. To date, there is no official information on whether the containers containing chemical waste were flooded during the flood waters and whether there was any spread of pollution on land or in the sea. This total lack of transparency has left citizens fearful and worried for their lives and those of their families, with no certainty as to how protected they are from a risk that could have long-term and irreversible consequences.

In any normal country, faced with such a risk, institutions would communicate openly, inform the public and take preventive measures. In Albania, unfortunately, silence seems to have become the norm. And silence, when it comes to hazardous waste, is not just irresponsibility, it is a direct danger to people's lives.

The problem of hazardous waste is not isolated to Porto Romano. According to independent studies, Albania produces tens of thousands of tons of hazardous waste every year, while lacking the necessary infrastructure to treat and process it. This is a structural problem, which has to do with the way the state plans, controls and protects the public interest.

In fact, the Albanian government itself officially acknowledges this failure in the document “Strategic Policies and National Plan for Integrated Waste Management 2020–2035”, which emphasizes that Albania does not have a basic infrastructure for managing hazardous waste, there is no complete data on its quantity and flows, and the locations for treatment centers have not yet been determined. When the state itself admits that it does not have the capacity to manage a risk, the question that naturally arises is, why do citizens continue to be exposed to it?

This is not just a technical or administrative issue. It is not even an abstract debate among experts. It is an issue that directly affects the daily lives of people, children growing up near these areas, families living in insecurity, communities that feel abandoned by the state. When a citizen does not know whether the air he breathes, the land he lives on or the water near his home is polluted, then we are dealing with a serious failure of the basic function of the state.

Porto Romano has become a symbol of this failure. Not only as a place where hazardous waste is located, but as a reflection of a governance model that reacts only when the scandal becomes public and not when the danger appears. A model that does not prevent, but manages crises after they erupt.

Albania cannot continue to behave as a country without rules, nor as a territory where environmental risks are tolerated due to incompetence or lack of political will. If European integration is a serious goal and not just a slogan, then protecting the lives and health of citizens must be an absolute priority.

The lives, health and future of Albanian communities are sacred and can no longer be put at risk by institutional failure and lack of accountability. Porto Romano should not be forgotten once it leaves the headlines. It should remain a constant reminder of what happens when accountability is lacking and the state forgets its fundamental duty, the protection of life. Ultimately, this is not just an environmental issue, but a clear test of what kind of state we want to be.