Exiles Bay shut down due to poor water quality

The Environmental Health Directorate (EHD) has issued a formal health warning for bathers to avoid swimming in Exiles Bay due to “poor” water quality, temporarily closing the beach in Sliema as the summer season unfolds.

In its second published dataset, the EHD flagged eight bathing sites with poor water quality, six of which were also reported in the EHD’s first public dataset for the summer, published last week. “Poor” quality indicates a high presence of faecal bacteria in the water.

Throughout the period 17 – 24 May, the directorate’s findings reveal that Ġnejna Bay, part of the Għajn Tuffieħa area, Golden Bay, part of an area near Għadira Bay, both sides of Balluta Bay, and Ramla Bay were once again flagged for poor water quality for the second week running.

Exiles Bay was the latest location to be added to the list in the findings published on Tuesday, with the EHD listing the site as “closed” in its report.

Curiously, several sites in Gozo that were flagged for poor water quality in the findings covering 11 – 17 May have now been reclassified as being of good or sufficient quality, with the exception of part of Ramla Bay.

Those sites include Qbajjar, Marsalforn Bay, Għar Qawqla, Mġarr ix-Xini, Daħlet Qorrot, and Ħondoq ir-Rummien.

The photo slider below shows a side-by-side comparison of the bathing sites flagged for poor quality in the two time periods covered by the EHD this season.

Overall, the reduction from 15 bathing sites flagged for poor quality to just eight from one week to the next raises questions about how such a rapid improvement could happen in a number of sites known to be vulnerable to pollution from marine activity and municipal waste.

In the case of the closure of Exiles Bay this week, the EHD has not publicly disclosed the cause of the site’s poor water quality, nor what corrective action it has taken in response.

The EHD’s lack of explicit transparency is particularly notable, given that concerned citizens regularly comment on its social media posts, asking for clarity, and are often left without a real response.

Questions have been sent to the EHD’s Water Regulatory and Auditing Unit to determine why Exiles Bay was temporarily closed, whether any corrective action was being taken, and why this beach was closed down for poor quality, while others weren’t.

Additional questions were also sent to better understand how the quality of several sites in Gozo suddenly improved in the span of a week.