QERRET, Albanie: Asim Krasniqi watches anxiously as the Adriatic Sea creeps ever closer to his beach bar in Albania, a country faced with an alarming pace of coastal erosion.
“I’m nostalgic for how this place used to be,” the septuagenarian told AFP wistfully, remembering when this beach in Qerret, to the west of the capital Tirana, was bigger and “many more” foreign tourists came.
“Today everything is degraded,” he said.
Environmentalists say a dangerous mix of climate change and rampant, unregulated urban development are behind the rapid disappearance of the shoreline in the impoverished Balkan country.
“The sea has swallowed the coast. She is taking revenge on man, who has destroyed nature,” said Sherif LusHajj, an environmental specialist at Polis University in Tirana.
The initially “inconspicuous” phenomenon has become far more serious in recent years, LusHajj told AFP.
Further north along the coast, near the concrete constructions in the beach resort town of Shengjin, dozens of tree trunks are decaying in water, a reminder that there used to be a forest between the sea and Kune lagoon.
The lagoon is now threatened, less and less protected by a thin strip of land that is fast disappearing.
Once perched on sand dunes, nuclear bunkers built during the communist era of dictator Enver Hoxha also now barely emerge above the water. Others have been engulfed by the sea.
Of the 427 kilometers (265 miles) of Albania’s coast, “154 are affected by erosion,” Environment Minister Blendi Klosi told AFP.
Sometimes barely perceptible, the advance of the sea in other areas has reached a frightening pace of 20 meters a year, he said.
Near Shengjin, it has engulfed “some 400 meters of ground in the course of the last 15 years,” said the minister.
“This place will disappear if the state does not take necessary measures,” said Osman Demi, a fisherman in his sixties who remembers the “terrible night” of December 31, 2009, when sudden floods submerged his village.
“We fish bass, crab, mullet here. The destruction of this lagoon would be a catastrophe,” said his colleague Albert Pati, adding that in certain corners, once full of fish, “the water is already dead.”
Pelicans have disappeared from the lagoon. A census conducted a year ago found just 7,000 birds, down from 50,000 in the 1970s.
Soon, if nothing is done, the people living here will also leave. There are 2,000 whose homes are threatened by the water, according to Jak Gjini, in charge of environmental issues in the Lezhe municipality, which covers Shengjin.
“The situation is dramatic,” he said.
Everything is working in favor of the sea’s conquest. There is climate change, with increasingly violent winter storms driving the water further and further in.
Then there is Albania’s massive deforestation, the extraction of sand from the rivers and rampant urbanization along the coast.
Almost deserted in winter, Shengjin is home to 15,000 people in the summer as holidaymakers and seasonal staff take up residence in blocks of multi-story concrete buildings, constructed on the sandy soil of the lagoon.
Those who have invested here are “the bosses,” said a fisherman with an enigmatic smile. These “bosses” build without permits, which they get after the building is erected using bribery during election campaigns, or hard cash.
“People are afraid to take on the interests of the powerful. It’s the law of the strongest,” said Gjini.
“These constructions are the result of pressure exerted by individuals to build without regard for urban planning.”
In his bar in Qerret, Krasniqi points out the rocky piers perpendicular to the coast that are sinking into the sea.
They were built without authorization by the owners of villas or hotels on the coast who hoped to protect their own property from erosion — but in doing so, they simply shifted the problem onto neighboring constructions.
“They have changed the currents, aggravating the problem,” he said.
Minister Klosi promises that “all the illegal construction in the sea will be destroyed and those responsible will be punished.”
But even this unprecedented action would not be enough, according to Eglantina Bruci, climate change specialist for the United Nations Development Programme in Tirana.
“The only solution... would be the construction of rock structures parallel to the coast and dune replenishment.”
Gjini said the cost of such measures would be “extraordinary” for one of the poorest countries in Europe — but by doing nothing, Albania anyway gets poorer by the day, he warned.
“Albania’s land is shrinking.”
The vengeful sea devouring Albania’s coast
The vengeful sea devouring Albania’s coast
Russian cyclist finds warm welcome on Saudi Arabia’s roads
- Anna Rodnishcheva’s ride through Kingdom is defining chapter in solo expedition
- Rodnishcheva cycled to Aqaba, crossed the border into Saudi Arabia, and has since traveled through Tabuk, AlUla, Madinah, Jeddah, and Taif on her way to Riyadh
MAKKAH: Solo adventurer Anna Rodnishcheva, 27, has undertaken an ambitious journey that spans countries, climates and cultures — on a bicycle.
Born and raised in Moscow and trained as a biologist before becoming an event photographer, she now finds herself pedaling thousands of kilometers across unfamiliar landscapes in pursuit of discovery, connection, and the simple joy of movement.
In her conversation with Arab News, Rodnishcheva offered a detailed account of her ongoing route in Saudi Arabia, describing how the expedition is her third major cycling adventure.
After previously riding from Moscow to Sochi and later from Vladivostok to Sochi — a route that stretches across the entirety of Russia — she felt compelled to explore foreign lands by bicycle.
She set off from Moscow heading south last June, passing through Russia, Georgia, and Turkiye before flying from Antalya to Amman. She cycled to Aqaba, crossed the border into Saudi Arabia, and has since traveled through Tabuk, AlUla, Madinah, Jeddah, and Taif on her way to Riyadh.
Rodnishcheva explained that physical preparation played only a small role in her planning. She began slowly and allowed her body to adapt naturally over the first month.
The true challenge, she said, was in the mental and financial preparation. She spent a year and a half planning the journey, even though she originally intended to postpone it for several more years.
Ultimately, her belief that “life is short” convinced her to start with the resources she already had. Although she sought medical evaluations and additional vaccinations, she was unable to complete them all and decided to continue regardless.
Her journey through Georgia and Turkiye presented unexpected difficulties. Simple tasks such as finding groceries or locating bicycle repair shops became more challenging outside of Russia, where she knew how to navigate on a budget.
She also encountered language barriers, though the situation improved when a local cyclist joined her in Georgia. The intense midsummer heat added another layer of difficulty, but she had prepared herself for such conditions.
One of the most striking moments of her trip occurred as she crossed from Jordan into Saudi Arabia. She described the experience as surreal and emotionally overwhelming, likening it to the adventures of a literary hero traveling across the Arabian Peninsula.
Her anxiety eased unexpectedly when she got a flat tire at the border, bringing her back to the present.
Despite being warned that crossing by bicycle would be prohibited, the process went smoothly, and she was struck by the friendliness of both Jordanian and Saudi officials. She expressed particular surprise at meeting a female Saudi passport officer, an encounter that challenged her previous assumptions about women’s roles in the Kingdom.
Rodnishcheva said the hospitality she had experienced in Saudi Arabia surpassed anything she had encountered on previous journeys. Drivers frequently stop to offer her water, fruit, or sweets, and several families have generously hosted her in their homes or guest flats.
She emphasized that she feels completely safe traveling across the Kingdom, especially on the open roads between cities, noting the strong and visible security presence.
She has also observed significant differences in weather. While the stretch from the border to Jeddah was hot despite being winter, the climate changed dramatically after climbing Al-Hada in Taif, turning cooler and windier — a climate she compared to Russian summers.
Rodnishcheva documents her travels primarily through Russian-language platforms such as VK and Telegram. Although she maintains YouTube and Instagram accounts, she explained that her schedule left little time for frequent updates.
Offering a message to women around the world who dream of embarking on similar adventures, she said such journeys were “not as scary as they seem before you start,” though they may not suit everyone.
Her closing advice? “Listen to your heart.”
