Assessment of the anthropogenic impact on the quality of the surface waters of Lake Shkodra (Albanian Part)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of Shkodra lake waters in terms of physical-chemical and microbiological parameters, knowing that many people frequent this water lake to bath in spring and summer. Lake Shkodra is the largest freshwater body on the Balkan Peninsula. It covers an area of about 370-600 km² and is shared between Montenegro and Albania. Evaluation of Lake Shkodra was realized during the period October 2021-June 2022 for Albanian Part. The study was carried out in six stations of the Lake Shkodra based on the anthropogenic impact in some different points of Lake Shkodra. The physical-chemical parameters are: temperature, pH, turbidity and conductivity. The analyzed microbiological parameters are: heterotrophic bacteria, Intestinal Enterococci, Escherichia coli. The results showed that most physical-chemical and microbiological parameters are within the limited values allowed by the WHO and Directive 2006/7/EC for surface water with some exceptions in few points.