Malta has borne witness to something of a revolution over the last decade insofar as the cleanliness of its swimming water is concerned. Malta’s beaches and swimming water have, once again, been rated as among the cleanest in the whole of the European Union.
In fact this year Malta’s beaches have been ranked in the European Commission’s annual report on the quality of the bloc’s bathing water as the EU’s second-cleanest, bettering countries known for their beaches such as Italy, Spain and Greece. Cyprus, according to the annual report, has the cleanest waters in the EU.
Out of the 87 bathing spots whose water quality is monitored in Malta, 97 per cent passed the EU’s cleanliness criteria with flying colours, whereas in the not-too-recent past Malta had fared very dismally indeed.
This new cleanliness of our waters was, however, not down to changing Mediterranean currents or any other natural phenomenon: what it boils down to, instead, is the simple fact that the country no longer dumps its raw, untreated sewage into the sea.
Not too long ago, as many will no doubt recall, raw sewage could be seen being pumped straight into the sea from so many locations around the islands.
In fact, according to a European Commission report ten years ago, in 2003, Malta was at the time pouring 25.8 million cubic metres of untreated raw sewage into the sea every year. The Wied Ghammieq pumping station alone was responsible for discharging into the sea raw 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 was once discharged into the sea from Ras il-Hobz.
The Wied Ghammieq outfall was somewhat close to the shore but the sheer amount of effluent was carried by prevalent currents towards the north of Malta, where most people swim. Doctors used to blame marine pollution for skin and ear infections during the swimming season. People were turning up at the hospital with rashes, and doctors could only warn people not to swim in contaminated seas.
That effluent made the sea far murkier and warmer by this time of year than it is today. Over the recent years many bays would regularly be declared unfit for bathing. In 2001, for instance, swimming was banned at one time or another at Xatt l-Ahmar, Bay Square in Bugibba, Mellieha Bay, Balluta Bay and St Paul’s Bay.
By 2005, Malta had still not got its act together, and only Poland fared worse in the EU in terms of quality of bathing sites while Greece, Cyprus, Holland and Lithuania obtained top marks.
But by the next year, Malta had made significant progress and a European 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.
The reason was that by that time Malta had built three sewage treatment plants – one in Gozo, one at Anchor Bay and one at Ta’ Barkat off Xghajra. As a result raw sewage is no longer being dumped at sea.
But apart from EU classifications, the notable decrease in rashes and infections in the swimming season and the clearer and colder seas around the islands are the best qualifications of what has been a significant improvement in the quality of life.
Not only have many family doctors noted a somewhat remarkable decline in the number of infections usually brought about by contact with polluted seawater, the sea is visibly clearer, colder and marine life is also thriving more than ever in recent memory.
Malta and its waters have certainly come a long, long way over the last ten years and the country will continue to reap the benefits over the next ten years in terms of the tourism rewards and the even more tangible rewards in the improvement in the quality of all of our lives that comes with treating the county’s tens of millions of cubic metres sewage it produces every year.