For years Comino has come under the microscope as being the destination in Malta which has fallen victim to over-tourism the most. 

In the summer months, the small island - which is a Natura 2000 site - is overrun by tourists, while kiosks residing over there on the basis of dubiously renewed concessions make thousands in profit off their backs, and off of exploiting and contributing to the degradation of Comino's natural beauty.

Former Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo did nothing at all to stop this, despite pleas by NGOs, despite sit-in protests on the island itself, and despite the negative media coverage that the situation on Comino was resulting in.

Bartolo has since been ousted after one scandal too many and his portfolio moved over to Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg.

Under his stewardship, a capping has now been introduced for Comino's Blue Lagoon.  The day has been split into three time slots - 8am to 1pm, 1.30pm to 5.30pm and 6pm to 10pm - and the Malta Tourism Authority have said that only 4,000 visitors will be allowed at the lagoon at any one time.

At face value it seems like progress: the MTA said that last summer up to 12,000 visitors were recorded at Blue Lagoon at any one time, especially at peak hours.  But is it actually anything we should be happy with?

In theory, the capping still allows a maximum of 12,000 people per day to be at Blue Lagoon.

In his first interview as Tourism Minister, Borg had told the Times of Malta: "We must clean up Comino. During July and August, 10,000 people descend on Comino's Blue Lagoon every day, and that's too many."

The newly introduced capping still allows for the possibility of what the minister himself described as "too many" people being at Blue Lagoon every day - so if that's the case, how much of a difference will this cap actually make? Does it go far enough?

It is also important to keep in mind that it is very difficult for us to actually understand how this capping compares to the needs of Blue Lagoon and Comino as a whole, precisely because the study which identified what Comino's carrying capacity should be has not been published.

This study was commissioned by the Environment & Resources Authority (ERA) but was never published, and the same ERA has consistently found an excuse in order not to have it published, even in the face of Freedom of Information requests.

This makes it all the more difficult for anyone to hold the authorities to account when it comes to how Comino is being treated - but perhaps that's the point.

The visitor cap which was announced this week is said to be only one step in a two-year process which will several measures involving several ministries and authorities involved in doing more at Blue Lagoon.

As to whether this first measure will make much of a difference - summer is almost upon us, so it won't take long for us to find out.