The cleaning operation to remove seaweed from sandy beaches has missed the secluded Mġiebaħ Bay this year but the authorities insist this is no oversight.

Seaweed still covers large swathes of the small beach despite the onset of August, prompting many complaints from bathers.

But the yearly cleaning operation at the start of summer to ready beaches for bathers had to be postponed at Mġiebaħ, according to a spokeswoman for the Infrastructure Ministry. She said the difficulty in reaching the beach by road meant that the removal of algae had to involve an Armed Forces patrol boat in a cumbersome operation.

Visitors wade through the seaweed.

“Our beach cleaning unit manually cleans all the waste material deposited but removal of algae is very difficult to handle in this way at Mġiebaħ,” she said.

The beach is reached by a winding road that can be very narrow at times. There is no direct access for vehicles to the foreshore and bathers park their cars on a stretch of land above the beach, making the last part on foot.

Seaweed is normally loaded onto the patrol boat and transported to Xemxija where it is loaded onto trucks for disposal.

Seaweed is brought ashore naturally but the spokeswoman said this year huge amounts remained deposited in the sea at Mġiebaħ, a phenomenon that also happened two years ago.

“We were waiting for strong winds to bring over these huge amounts ashore so that the difficult cleansing operation will happen once,” she said.

Mellieħa mayor John Buttiġieġ said he understood the rationale behind the cleansing unit’s thinking but insisted that, if nature did not oblige, summer would be over before the beach was cleaned.

“The council has received numerous complaints from beachgoers and at this rate summer could very well be over before the beach is cleaned,” he said.