Albania's waste-choked rivers worsen deadly floods

But locals and the country's prime minister said the flow of waste into waterways exacerbated the problem, clogging already swollen rivers.'

"This year it was a real disaster. The riverbed was completely choked with plastic waste, swept away by the overflowing waters," Ramazan Malushi, a resident of Shkozet, near the Adriatic coast, told AFP.