One World... Waters

Does bathing water reach international standards?
Bathing water quality has a major impact on public health, and both the Barcelona Convention and the Water Framework Directive set out bathing water quality standards. Malta's bathing waters have improved in terms of microbiological parameters; the number of sites classified as first class under the Barcelona Convention rose from 55 per cent of sites in 1996 to 83 per cent in 2004.

Between 2001 and 2004, all bathing sites complied with the EU Bathing Water Quality Directive criteria as no sites had water quality below the minimum mandatory standards. At least 84 of the 87 sites monitored achieved optimum standards between 2001 and 2004. In EU-15, bathing water quality improved throughout the 1990s and by 2002, 96 per cent of bathing waters complied with the mandatory standards, although 13 per cent still do not meet the non-mandatory maximum standards.

The State Of the Environment Report 2005 is a Mepa publication available on www.mepa.org.mt