The 2024 edition of Mediterranean Coastal Day took place in Vlorë, Albania, on September 25, 2023 with to the support of the MedProgramme of the Global Environment Facility. The central theme of the celebration, organized by PAP/RAC in partnership with UNESCO-IHP, was coastal aquifers, an invisible but crucial resources for the region.
During the high-level conference in the morning, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, herself from the Vlorë region, underlined the importance for the region to take steps toward sustainability, as an optimal economic growth should go hand in hand with a protection of the fragile coastal and marine environment. The city's mayor, for his part, stressed that the growth of tourist activity must be sustainable to ensure that future generations have even more opportunities than present generations. The UNEP-MAP coordinator then drew the attention of the participants to the main theme of the celebration: coastal aquifers. One of the main problems is excessive groundwater extraction, which leads to rapid depletion of aquifers in our region. This in turn leads to several forms of environmental degradation, including land subsidence and seawater intrusion. Conservation and management efforts should therefore not be focused solely on human uses, but also pay particular attention to groundwater-dependent ecosystems such as wetlands, estuaries, lagoons, wetlands and other coastal habitats. which host a myriad of plant and animal species.
In the afternoon, the celebration moved to the lung of Vlorë, where awareness activities for schoolchildren and high school students were organized by the Zalav association.
