Beaches in tip-top condition

To those behind the push for Malta to treat all its sewage before dumping it into the sea, the recent news that the country ranks second in the European Union, behind Cyprus and ahead of Greece, in the clean bathing water charts must have come as welcome though unsurprising news. Unsurprising because achieving a 100 per cent compliance rate with stringent EU criteria and a 95.4 per cent compliance rate with the much stricter and non-mandatory guidelines is not due to the vagaries of sea currents or pot luck but the result of government policy.

As Europe’s most densely populated country, with a highly urbanised population and very little in the way of countryside and, as the EU has just reported, with only half a percentage point of tree coverage, Malta’s beaches are burdened with the triple-function of standing in as our recreational parks, nature reserves and source of natural beauty. And this is apart from their role in drawing in the droves of tourists we have come to depend on in the summer season. Without clean beaches not only will the Maltese be left with few alternatives for outdoor recreation but many tourists will simply go elsewhere. The Mediterranean is probably the world’s most competitive tourism market.

But for decades Malta’s coastal waters were neglected. The height of our sewage management policy meant only extending sewage outlets further out to sea. Each summer at least one of these pipes would leak or a seaside cesspit would overflow under seasonal pressure leaving bathers swimming in what are euphemistically termed “surface-active substances” in environmental reports. Aside from the ruinous impression left on visitors of Malta’s seaside offerings, the dangers to public health are clear.

In 2005, when Malta’s bathing waters were first assessed by the European Environment Agency, in our first full year as an EU member state, we got the worst result bar Poland. Only 40 per cent of our bathing areas met the mandatory standards. Even fewer reached the guideline benchmarks. Though the low ranking was due largely to an inadequate number of samples submitted to the agency, the leap from that year is astounding. Even the ordinarily guarded Commission described Malta’s rapid rise to the top as remarkable. Indeed, Malta’s average bathing water quality between 2007 (only two years after those disappointing results) and 2010 was the highest in the EU.

What accounts for this exceptional ranking? To determine the quality of bathing areas, the waters are tested against a number of physical, chemical and microbiological indicators for which an EU directive sets out mandatory and guideline values. Malta’s turnaround came about in particular due to improvements on the microbiological indicator thanks to the government’s drive to curb the outflow of raw sewage into the sea. The improvements were so great that not only did Malta become one of only seven EU member states with a full compliance rate vis-à-vis mandatory values but also one of only four member states with a compliance rate above 90 per cent in terms of the tougher non-mandatory guidelines.

And this progress was made before the inauguration last month of the multi-million euro Ta’ Barkat wastewater treatment plant in Xgħajra. Ta’ Barkat is the third and final sewage treatment plant in the government’s national wastewater management plan and, with the start of its operations, Malta became the first Mediterranean country to treat all its sewage before pumping it into the sea. Without the environmental exigencies imposed by the responsibility of being an EU member state along with the financial support that status brings it would have been difficult for the government to muster the political will to get the country where it is now in such a short space of time.

Malta was able to not only improve the quality of its natural environment for the benefit of Maltese citizens but gain a significant edge over regional rivals in the tourism market. While we might not be able to compete on price with emerging competitors like Montenegro – and perhaps even old competitors like Spain – we can certainly compete on quality. And where a beautiful coast is only one part of Malta’s appeal, alongside our cultural heritage, thanks to EU membership and the unrelenting work of our government we have been able to develop a formidable product.

The author is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.