According to a report by the European Environment Agency and the European Commission, the countries with the cleanest bathing waters across the whole of Europe are, in order, Cyprus, Malta, Croatia and Greece - all of which achieved excellent bathing water quality for more than 90 per cent of its swimming spots.

With a result of 97.7 per cent, Malta placed second after Cyprus, which achieved 99.1 per cent quality rating.

Malta’s Environmental Health Directorate noted that this demonstrates an improvement over last year’s results, in which Malta placed third, with 95.4 per cent of its bathing sites having been classified as ‘excellent’.

At the opposite end of the scale, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Latvia, Luxemburg and Belgium had relatively low proportions of sites meeting the strict guide values, especially with respect to inland waters.

In Malta, the Environmental Health Directorate monitored 87 bathing sites during the official bathing season – between the third week of May to the third week of October – over the last three years, since the classification under the new bathing water directive 2006/7/EC came into force.

The report describes water quality in more than 22,000 bathing sites at beaches, rivers and lakes across Europe.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: “I am pleased to note that the quality of Europe’s bathing waters generally remains high, and has improved since last year. A clear majority of Europeans are concerned about water quality issues, and want more information on this. We must therefore continue our work to ensure our waters are appropriate for all legitimate uses – from bathing to drinking – and that the overall aquatic ecosystem is in good health.”

Professor Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the European Environment Agency, said: “The quality of water at beaches and other bathing spots is one of the most important environmental concerns of European citizens. But in several countries there is still a problem with pollution from agriculture and sewage, so we need to see more efforts to ensure safe and clean water for the public.”

Water quality at Europe’s most popular summer destinations was generally good – with more than 90 per cent of bathing water sites meeting the mandatory values. Spain, Italy and Portugal had more than 80 per cent of sites with excellent water quality.

The overall quality of bathing waters in the EU has markedly improved since 1990. The number of coastal bathing waters not complying with the Bathing Water Directive’s provisions fell from 9.2 per cent of sites in 1990 to 1.5 per cent in 2011. The number of inland bathing areas not complying with mandatory values decreased from 11.9 per cent in 1990 to 2.4 per cent in 2011, which is among the lowest percentages to date.

In their foreword to the report, Mr Potočnik and Prof. McGlade wrote that European citizens can get more detailed information about water quality at their local bathing site by using various online resources such as Eye on Earth.

The Eye on Earth global public information service brings together vast amounts of data about the environment in a powerful, visual format. It includes an application called WaterWatch, which allows users to zoom in on their local beach, see previous records and submit their own rating of water quality. These resources are continuously improved and built upon, and anyone interested is urged to take a look and make good use of them.

Sewage treatment plants, the saviour of Malta’s swimming water

The main reason behind such dramatically improved results is that Malta has now completely stopped pouring raw sewage into the sea. According to a European Commission report in 2003, Malta then was pouring 25.8 million cubic metres of untreated raw sewage into the sea every year.

The Wied Għammieq pumping station alone discharged sewage at an average rate of 58,000 cubic metres per day, totalling an estimated 19.7 million cubic metres of untreated sewage every year. In Gozo, almost 90 per cent of all wastewater used to be discharged into the sea at Ras il-Ħobż.

At that point Malta had still not joined the EU and the then European Commissioner for the Environment Margot Wallstrom had warned Malta it would have ‘huge problems’ complying with the EU’s Swimming Water Quality directive.

Doctors at St Luke’s Hospital had said that marine pollution was bringing about an increase in skin and ear infections. People were turning up at the hospital with rashes and doctors could only warn people not to swim in contaminated seas.

The Wied Għammieq outfall was rather near the shore but the sheer amount of effluent was carried by prevalent currents towards the north shores of Malta where most of the bathing takes place. That is why the sea used to be rather murky by this time every year, and also why the sea was warmer.

Over the past decades, many bays were declared unfit for bathing. In 2000, for instance, on 59 days bathing was banned on beaches around Malta. This went down to 56 the following year, but obviously, this was not enough.

In 2001, for instance, swimming was banned at some point in the following bays: Xatt l-Aħmar, Mellieħa Bay, Balluta Bay and St Paul’s Bay.

By 2005, Malta had still not got its act together. Only Poland was worse in the EU for quality of bathing sites while Greece, Cyprus, Holland and Lithuania obtained top marks.

But by the next year, Malta had made significant steps forward and a Commission report for that year had stated that 96 per cent of Malta’s designated bathing sites were free from marine pollution and complied with EU standards.

Then Malta built three sewage treatment plants – one in Gozo, one at Anchor Bay in Mellieħa and one, the latest, at Ta’ Barkat off Xgħajra. As a result no more raw sewage is being dumped into the sea.

Now Malta ranks second in the whole of the EU. But aside from EU classification a decrease in rashes and infections (as reported in this newspaper in the past) and the clear, if colder, sea are the best qualifications of what has been a significant improvement in the quality of the country’s sea life.