State of the waters

Doesn't anyone care about the Maltese waters or even the view of tourists? People visit Malta to enjoy culture and swimming.

We decided to go swimming at what we know as Barracudas Waterpolo Club in St Paul's Bay. When we arrived there the sea was dead calm and the water looked extremely inviting but, to our surprise, there was nobody in the water. It appears that some people had been in the water, briefly and touched the floats for the waterpolo pitch. Their swimwear and their skin was coated in oil. Where they had held onto the plastic floats their hands were covered in oil.

About a month ago there was an oil rig in St Paul's Bay and there was "spill" of what appeared to be crude oil. It coated anything that was in the water and the surrounding rocks with oil around the St Paul's Bay area. The above photo was taken at around 11.30 to 11.45 a.m., on Friday, August 24. What do the tourists think when they see this or when they climb out of the sea to find they are covered in oil or grease?

Does anyone care?

I must point out that this is not an isolated incident. We have been swimming at Bahar ic-Caghaq where there is an encampment similar to gypsy camps with caravans. Where do they empty their waste? Armier Bay is full of rubbish. In fact the sea around Malta and the coast of Malta is full of rubbish just dumped and left there.

This is hardly a good advertisement for Malta.

There was mention of the recent UK TV episode of Coronation Street being filmed in Malta and the unpaid advertising for Malta tourism that it generated.

One thing that should be considered is "word of mouth" and the negative effect it can have. Once people have been here and seen the state of things they are not going to speak favourably about it.