An informal camping site in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq has been transformed into a disgusting dumping ground, littered with plastic, rotting food, and other waste.

Marine biologist Alan Deidun told the Times of Malta he was shocked when he visited the area known as Qalet Marku on the Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq peninsula earlier on Tuesday.

“You won’t notice it from the Coast Road but once you enter on foot it becomes immediately clear. It’s absolutely disgusting. People have laid concrete illegally for camping sites, there’s abandoned barbecues, leftover food everywhere. The floor is littered with plastic, there were even bones from a rabbit or a chicken or something that had been discarded in the sea – just left there floating,” Prof. Deidun said.

The area has only recently been cleared of rubbish in a clean-up by members of the public and the public cleansing directorate, however, readers said it was not long before it had once again been ruined.

“People don’t even realise that with the first strong storm, all that plastic and other rubbish will end up in the sea,” Prof. Deidun said.

Perhaps the best solution, he added, was to create a management plan for the area.

Clean-ups, Prof. Deidun said, were all well and good, but they were near pointless if the area was allowed to be used as a dumping ground by careless members of the public.