Hans Jocham is not your average tourist. In fact, he brings a motive all the way from his home in Munich, and that is to keep Malta’s beaches clean.

Throughout his five-week-long visit to Malta, Mr Jocham found the array of beaches around the island to be littered with rubbish.

He spent several days at Ġnejna Bay. “Every time I came to the same little place, I had to clean away the rubbish from other people,” he said.

What he was doing had already attracted the interest of many, he said. “Some talk to me and say, ‘Oh, yes, it’s very good what you are doing’. Here [Ġnejna Bay] there was only one woman who was cleaning the beach, and she helped me.

“I think she was a local.”

To Mr Jocham, the real problem is that people are too afraid to tell others to clean up their rubbish.

“Other people do not appreciate beautiful beaches and are not interested in cleaning them,” Mr Jocham said. He hopes his example will help encourage both tourists and local people to help keep the beaches clean and free of litter.

It seems litter is not the only problem at Ġnejna Bay.

In fact, some of the facilities, like the public toilets located on the car park, have not been in use for several days and, according to Mr Jocham, nothing seems to be done about it.

There is a sign in the car park informing motorists that paying for parking is voluntary. However, he noted, it faced the opposite way to the entry of the car park, so when beach-goers arrived they would not see the notice.

Mġarr mayor Paul Vella said the toilets were cleaned every day and at this moment, they were all in working order. He promised to look into the car park sign.