MTA moves to protect sand at Buġibba beach

The sand on Buġibba's perched beach has been pushed back to avoid the possibility of a storm dragging 25 per cent of it away in the upcoming winter season, the Malta Tourism Authority said.

The beach is still accessible to the public, who can use the rocks. But the sand was pushed back and the pontoons removed in mid-September, which has been established, even in accordance with insurance companies, as the end of the swimming season.

Not the ideal location for a perched beach, Buġibba was chosen on grounds of its tourism zone status and the sand and pontoons were placed there to enhance the rocky site, the MTA's CEO Josef Formosa Gauci said.

The beach was developed two years ago and last year lessons were learned when a storm washed away a substantial amount of sand, he said. The MTA was reacting to comments by the opposition spokesman for tourism, Marie-Louise Coleiro-Preca, who said the "closure" of the beach raised many questions and called for the reasons behind the decision.

"Rarely do you hear of the closing of a beach in other countries, particularly in tourist destinations, without a valid reason," she said.

Ms Coleiro-Preca also asked whether the works on the beach were carried out as they should have, how the money to develop it was spent and how much the government was spending every year to replenish the beach with sand.