Once, and often twice a day in the summer, sewage from the Albanian tourist town of Velipoje, two to three kilometers from Bojana, is discharged into the river in large quantities and spreads an unbearable stench in the surroundings.
This, as the fishermen from Bojana claim, makes any kind of fishing or staying in our part of Bojana pointless.
"Incidents occur about 500 meters upstream from the fork, at the first bend. Previously, sewage was discharged only at night so that it could not be seen, now it is done openly during the day. We can't fish because of the unbearable stench, so we give up. This has a disastrous effect on both the plant and animal life of the river," one of the fishermen from Bojan told "Vijesta".
The discharge of sewage in Bojan is not the only incident that has recently affected the river. "Vijesti" announced five years ago that hundreds of dead chickens were floating in the river in nylon bags, but no one from the neighboring country issued an official statement about it except "that it is possible that they sailed from that country, but that it does not necessarily mean that". as reported by TV News.
Analyzes of the Montenegrin Food Safety Authority showed then that the dead chickens had Salmonella type C.
Dead chickens, as well as large livestock, which were floating in the river Bojana in those September days, were removed after several days of action by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Food Safety Administration and the Police Administration.
Necessary immediate reaction of the authorities
Ecologist from Ulcinj Dzelal Hodzic he said that sewage problems near Velipoja, garbage, poaching, dead animals floating in the river are just some of the issues that require urgent attention from the competent institutions of Montenegro and Albania.
"I know where the sewage from Velipoja flows into Bojan, I've been a couple of times and once saw dead eels on the surface, but Skadar is responsible for that, not that tourist center. Before the season, I was in Shkodër and wanted to talk to the president of that city about all these problems, but I was unable to reach him," Hodžić told "Vijesta".
He reminded that environmental incidents in Bojana are not rare.
"15 years ago, when I was visiting kayakers near our border patrol, I saw dead cows, pigs, sheep floating down the river, a few days apart... I don't know if someone threw them or if they ended up in the river by chance, but that shouldn't happen. However, later we received chickens in bags, which means that someone knowingly threw them into the river," he said.
He said that from Shkodra to the sea, according to his information, there are 11 settlements along Bojana.
"These are smaller places, hamlets, but I heard that they also have a chemical plant. All this should be checked and any risk to the river should be ruled out, which generally carries everything that is thrown into it to the sea. These are all issues that these two neighboring states must urgently resolve," Hodžić pointed out.
Because of the "traps" near Shkodër, less fish here
Fishermen once again apostrophized the problem with metal constructions intertwined with fishing nets, placed across the entire width of the riverbed at Bojana, at the very exit from Shkodër.
"Those 'traps', the so-called distant, significantly reduce the migration of fish in both directions and thus collapse the ecological balance of the river. All because of one man to whom even the authorities of Shkodër and Albania seem to be unable to do anything," says one of the fishermen.
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