The location of our most recent clean up was Berat in central Albania.
Bright and early on Sunday morning, 21 of us piled onto a minibus and headed off to make a difference. Upon arriving in Berat, we decided to split into three teams so that we could all tackle a different part of the city. My team headed up to the castle, one team took care of Mangalem (at the foot of the castle) and the other ventured over to Gorica (on the left side of the Osum river).
Team Gorica managed to collect around 12 x 120-litre bags of rubbish from the side of the river and the cobbled streets.
Team Mangalem collected around 10 x 120-litre bags of rubbish from the backstreets of their locality.
Team Kalaja were absolutely horrified at what they found and after collecting around 25 bags, they ran out of energy, spirit, and everything else.
What we were confronted with up at Berat Castle was absolutely horrific. We started cleaning at the place where all the buses stop. Nearby there were some bins that looked like they had not been emptied in months and surrounding the whole road and bank area was a sea of plastic bottles, straws, plastic bags, cans, beer bottles and unmentionable items. We found clothing, computer keyboards, a TV, shoes, and all another manner of things that would suggest people were deliberately using it as a dumping ground for household waste.
As if this was not bad enough, we then trekked up to underneath the bastions of the castle itself and it was there that we found a scene of utter devastation in our wake. The perimeter of the castle was covered in rubbish including all manners of plastic, household waste, building debris and even bags full of housing insulation. It was as if the local dumper trucks had emptied their loads over the castle walls and left it to rot. We were a team of nine people and we could only touch the surface of what was there. When I laid my eyes upon the mess that was at this beautiful location, it almost made me cry- why would anyone deliberately deface something like this? What do you think tourists and visitors think when they see things like this? It is utterly shameful and it almost made me want to give up.
But no, I will not be defeated and instead, we will return with a bigger team to spend a whole day cleaning this area. It requires triple the people, triple the resources, and triple the time to clean it up adequately. I hope to see more people involved next time.
To all of the wonderful people that gave up their Sunday to help us make a difference, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I felt so deflated after what I saw that day, but I hope next time we can make even more of a difference. Whilst I am beginning to realise the enormity of the task ahead, I have decided to turn my despair into motivation, and it is thanks to every single one of you that lends a hand. You are all superstars and I cannot express my gratitude enough.
WAKE UP Albania and stop polluting the beautiful natural gift that you have.
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