A preliminary study of chemical parameters of water in the Albanian part of Lake Ohrid at the end of the spring season

The transboundary lake of Ohrid, which lies between North Macedonia and Albania, is one of the deepest lakes in the Balkan Peninsula. The study was conducted in Albanian part of lake in order to make an overall assessment of the water quality of Lake Ohrid in terms of phosphorus, phosphates, nitrogen and nitrites at the end of the spring season which is characterized by a high frequency of tourism. The research was carried out in June of 2016 at three selected points of the lake (at the entrance of the city of Pogradec, at the point that was a few meters away from the former iron-nickel mine and at the exit of the village Lin). Water samples were collected from the surface and the chemical parameters were measured by the spectrophotometric method. The results showed that points 2 and 3 had the highest values of total P (0.187 mg/l and 0.177 mg/l) and total N (0.296 mg/l and 0.268 mg/l). In terms of nitrites there were no major differences between the points and the values were low. The high values of phosphates in point 1 can be justified by the high intensity of tourism in the city of Pogradec in the spring-summer season. According to the Regulation on the Quality of Drinking Water in Albania dated 25.5.16, the waters of Lake Ohrid in terms of total N enter the class A, while according to the UNECE 1994 recommendation for surface waters, in terms of total phosphorus, the waters of Lake Ohrid belong to the fourth class.