Several people took to the water at Pretty Bay, in Birżebbuġa, over the weekend, unsure whether the beach had been cleared for swimming after an oil spill last week.

The bay was closed by the Civil Protection Department on Friday and it was only late yesterday, at about 6.30pm, that the Environmental Health Department issued an official statement saying it would remain closed pending tests.

It said water samples had been taken and the bay was being monitored following the oil spill. The first samples were taken after the bay had been cleared of the oil, the department said.

Water samples have been taken and the bay is being monitored

“We haven’t been informed either way. And we don’t have the authority to order the beach closed ourselves. It’s unclear to us at this stage what the status of the beach is,” a spokeswoman for the beach officials told Times of Malta late in the morning.

The beach was closed after a container carrying chemicals in the nearby Freeport started leaking into the sea. The accidental leak started after the container, carrying “specialised liquids”, was struck by machinery on Thursday.

Bathers were unsure yesterday whether Pretty Bay in Birżebbuġa was open for swimming or not.

CPD personnel cleaned up the beach which was covered in a thin layer of oily liquid in the days after the spill.

Although it has the authority to close the beach for cleaning, the CPD cannot declare it fit for bathing again; that responsibility rests with the Environmental Health Directorate.

Bathers expressed concern at the lack of information available to them. Jonathon Vassallo, who was at the beach with his wife and two young children, said he had no idea the beach had been contaminated.

“I think they should put up some kind of sign when this sort of thing happens. I think we deserve to know whether the water is good enough to swim in,” he said.