As the days get warmer, Maltese families return to the same handful of bays and beaches they have always gone to, to enjoy some summer relaxation. However, for some time now, this age-old custom is becoming increasingly endangered as reports of ill-quality water in our beaches, are worryingly increasing.
According to a report published by the European Environment Agency, Malta's bathing water quality has deteriorated progressively since 2022, with the share of sites rated "excellent" falling from 94.3% that year to 92% in 2024 and 88.5% in 2025. The report placed Malta among the worst-performing EU member states for coastal bathing water, with the poorest results recorded in St Julian's, Sliema, and parts of St Paul's Bay and Qawra. Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria and Croatia, by contrast, each kept at least 95% of their sites in the top category.
The 2026 bathing season opened with 15 of the 87 officially monitored sites classified as poor, eight of them in Gozo, including Qbajjar, Marsalforn Bay, Għar Qawqla, Mġarr ix-Xini, Ramla Bay, Daħlet Qorrot and Ħondoq ir-Rummien, and the rest on the main island, among them Ġnejna Bay, the left side of Għajn Tuffieħa and Golden Bay, and both flanks of Balluta Bay. At Qawra, one sample recorded 85,000 E. coli per 100ml of seawater, against an official threshold of 1,000. In early June, the Environmental Health Directorate also advised against bathing at Birżebbuġa because of sewage percolating into the sea. By the second week of June, the list of poor-quality sites had been trimmed to five, without much public explanation of what had changed.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. In October 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against Malta over its handling of urban wastewater, finding that the country had failed to ensure wastewater from the Malta South and Malta North treatment plants was properly treated before discharge, and had failed to meet its monitoring obligations.
The Nationalist Party's initiative to track water quality on a dedicated page, is commendable. Same for MEP Peter Agius's interest in the matter, which he raised directly with the European Commission's environment commissioner, pushing for an independent audit and sampling of Malta's seawater.
The reality is that Malta's wastewater infrastructure was largely built for a smaller population and a smaller tourism sector and is now under sustained pressure from rapid population growth, intensifying storm-water runoff and over tourism.
However, this cannot ever be considered as any kind of excusing factor. If it were just one accident, or case of bad luck, we would be the first to understand and offer our helping hand. But this is evidently the result of a much more serious problem - the result of an infrastructure which is buckling under the weight.
Once again, this is the lack of foresight, in yet another sector which is manifestly leaving its toll. Excuses are of little comfort to a family turned away from their favourite beach this summer. Considering Malta boasted some of the finest bathing water in most of its beaches until a few years ago, it is sad to see how far the wrong way our beaches have gone.