Maltese beaches among the best in Europe

Bathing water in Malta is of a high quality with beaches and swimming spots placing among the best in Europe in terms of cleanliness and hygiene standards.

The annual EU Bathing Water report, which measures the quality of bathing water in coastal areas and along rivers and lakes in all member states, saw Malta scoring a compliance rate of 98.9 per cent. This means the island managed to surpass the average EU performance, which last year stood at 96 per cent, according to the report released yesterday.

Of the 87 coastal bathing areas monitored by Maltese authorities last year, Armier Bay was the only one that did not meet the required standards due to "surface-active substances" emerging from sewage overflow. The remaining 86 bathing areas got a clean bill of health and reached the highest hygiene standards required by the EU's Bathing Water Directive.

With such a high compliance, Malta last year achieved the best result since its bathing waters started being measured along EU standards in 2004.

In its first year as a member state, in 2005, Malta got the worst result and just 40.2 per cent of its bathing areas met the standards. Since then, Malta managed to improve its performance every year, achieving its best result in 2008.

"Malta has made remarkable progress in this area since joining the EU," an EU official said yesterday. "This is definitely a direct result of the €78 million investment being made by the EU and the Maltese authorities' decision to start treating sewage before dumping it into the sea."

The report indicated that Malta had to work harder as one of its main tourism rivals in the Mediterranean, Cyprus, had already reached 100 per cent compliance, placing as the country with the best waters in the EU.

Neighbouring Italy has the worst record among the 27 member states, reaching just 92.8 per cent compliance.

The Bathing Water Directive obliges member states to monitor all zones where bathing is explicitly authorised or where bathing is traditionally practised by a large number of swimmers and is not prohibited.

To determine their quality, the waters are tested against a number of physical, chemical and microbiological parameters for which the directive sets out mandatory values.

Member states must comply with the mandatory values but may also adopt the stricter standards and non-binding guide values.