Keeper of the Blue Flag

No one enjoys sitting in an ashtray. The Tourism Ministry could not have picked a better time to declare St George's Bay a Blue Flag pilot beach. Ongoing works at the sewage pumping station to one edge of the bay were giving off an unavoidable smell last week as beach cleaners diligently plucked ice cream wrappers from the sand.

Cigarette butts on the beach still escape the cleaner's tongs as plastic articles float in the shallows near shore. Pink quarry grit from the artificial beach clashes with the more natural colour of sand.

This international eco-label for beaches calls for stringent criteria before a beach can come anywhere near raising the Blue Flag status symbol reserved for well managed beach areas. The idea of the pilot phase we are now entering is to put standards in place.

Blue Flag's international programme has been described as "a vehicle to enhance government commitment, drive the industry beyond legislative compliance and materialise crucial public-private partnerships, all of which have been fundamental to sustain the programme itself and set the path towards sustainability".

Among imperative measures recommended to meet the criteria are mechanical sifting and deep cleaning to remove cigarette butts from the sand. Regularly updated test results for the quality of bathing water must be displayed on an information board. The beach and facilities must be subject to an environmental impact assessment.

Evidently, we still have much to do to get St George's Bay off the ground as a tentative pilot model for future Blue Flag beaches around the Maltese Islands.

So far, a national committee has been formed with the Malta Tourism Authority on board, and a feasibility report has been drawn up, which already shows the prospects for extending Blue Flag standards to beaches around Malta and Gozo.

While recent press statements may have given the impression that the beach already conforms with all the required standards, the absence of a Blue Flag flying at St George's Bay belies the fact that we are still very much in the learning process.

A plan to reduce the impact of traffic in the coastal zone is called for as part of the programme. Information relating to coastal zone ecosystems and natural, sensitive areas in the coastal zone (e.g. posidonia meadows) must be displayed.

A minimum of five environmental activities must first be offered to promote the Blue Flag programme through increasing awareness of the coastal zone, training personnel and providers of tourism services, encouraging stakeholder participation, promoting sustainable recreation, and sharing ideas with other Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) programmes.

Candidate criteria

Vetting applicants for the Blue Flag involves a rigorous approach. The European scheme was extended to beaches around the world in 2001 and last year an international set of criteria was set with some regional variations.

The FEE bases its acceptance of applications for the coveted Blue Flag status on how much the representative organisation shares its objectives.

A good deal of thanks go to Nature Trust, representative for FEE in Malta since 2004, for taking on the task of national Blue Flag operator so that the first Maltese beach could be accepted as a candidate for a pilot scheme in a bid to achieve this internationally recognised quality standard.

It is greatly due to NT's work with Eko-Skola and other FEE programmes that Malta has made it as far as the pilot phase.

Now we have arrived at the delicate stage of testing compliance at the St George's Bay pilot beach and filling in the gaps. The beach will serve as a platform through the coming year for the testing programme to upgrade new candidate beaches and marinas aspiring to claim Blue Flag status.

The award of a Blue Flag beach is based on compliance with 29 criteria covering water quality, safety, services, environmental education, information and management. Most of these are imperative while others are guidelines with a few only applicable in certain regions, e.g. policies on coral reefs.

Fresh water showers on beaches should be made subject to the wider regional consideration that such plans must tie in with a sustainable water policy.

Blue Flag status is awarded one season at a time. If some of the imperative criteria are not fulfilled during the season, then the Blue Flag will be withdrawn from the beach. In the event, the reason the flag has been taken down must be posted on the Blue Flag Information Board at the site.

Testing the water

The first bit of environmental information that beach users will want to know is whether the sea is clean enough for safe bathing. At any beach where a Blue Flag flies it is a strict requirement that regularly updated information about bathing water quality must be displayed:

"Updated bathing water quality information must be displayed at the beach information board.

"The information should be presented in a clear form that is easily understood by the general public with easily identified symbols corresponding to the results. Interpretation of the tables and figures should be explained in a short text.

"This text should state how often water samples are taken and that the flag will be removed in case of non-compliance. The complete and detailed data must be made available by the local authorities or the tourist office to anybody upon request."

Principal Health Inspector at the Environmental Health Unit, Charles Bonnici, confirms that micro biological samples are taken at a depth of 30 cm inside the bathing zone on either side of the beach. One of the two test sites is near the sewage pumping station currently undergoing an upgrade, so it should pick up any problems at this end of the beach.

Monitoring of bathing water quality at 87 sites around Malta and Gozo has started again for the seventh summer season with the first results expected to be posted on the EHU Website* soon after they are received from the lab.

EIAs for Blue Flag beaches

Another mandatory obligation for Blue Flag beaches is that the beach must comply with all regulations affecting the location and operation of the beach, including coastal zone planning and environmental legislation.

"The beach location, facilities, beach operation and immediate hinterland must comply with official development plans and planning regulations."

A glance at St George's Bay on MEPA's map server shows that the beach area has been in the past subject to enforcement orders, including engineering works and breach of conditions on permits.

Too often we have seen works commissioned by a ministry, or relevant authority, which have gone ahead without respecting the proper planning permission procedures, which should exclude no one. This sort of shortcoming will not be tolerated in areas applying for Blue Flag status:

"The location of facilities and use of the beach area and its vicinity must be subject to planning guidelines, which include environmental assessments."

St George's Bay artificial beach did undergo a form of Environment Impact Assessment. More recently, a waiver quietly exempted other beaches from assessment by legal notice. This is set to be frozen in a full waiver as part of changes made to local law on developments that would normally, by European standards, require an EIA.

It is highly questionable whether the experience at the pilot beach of St George's Bay can be applied across the board at other marine sites when every beach has its own dynamism and unique set of circumstances.

Proposed marina status uncertain

A beach replenishment proposal for the sand at Hondoq ir-Rummien to be buried under more artificial material appeared in the original plans, although not much has been heard about it lately. There are concerns that the natural beach would suffer a negative impact if a sea arm had to be built to shelter a proposed marina hacked out of the coastline there.

At some later date we may expect to see a separate development permit application for Hondoq ir-Rummien appearing under the Malta Tourism Authority, or some other applicant, to artificially replenish sands that could be gradually eroded away by a marina real estate project.

Blue Flag criteria would certainly prohibit a marina from threatening environmental damage to the coastline, especially if this is clear even at the early planning stage. It is doubtful at this rate that Qala Creek marina could ever be accepted as a Blue Flag candidate since the existing public bathing beach stands to be irreversibly damaged if the project is permitted to go ahead.

The best time to declare St George's Bay a Blue Flag beach is when all the criteria have been met and the go-ahead given to raise the flag signalling high standards - not merely promised... but maintained.

From here on it will be up to an international jury to decide whether the Blue Flag will fly over St George's Bay each season. Vince Attard, president of Nature Trust, explains the process: "You get the pilot beach and if you make it to full criteria, within a year you get the Blue Flag."

It will take full co-operation from all concerned if Blue Flags are to fly on Malta's beaches and we will have to do all we can to keep them flying.