Why were beaches closed one week and ‘excellent’ the next? Authorities won’t say

Malta’s environmental health authorities have yet to explain why popular beaches were declared unsafe one week and rated “excellent” the next, raising questions about transparency in the country’s beach water quality monitoring system.

Following the publication of the Environmental Health Directorate’s (EHD) first water quality report for this season towards the end of May, The Shift reached out to the EHD’s Water Regulatory and Auditing Unit to better understand what action was being taken to address poor water quality in several popular sites flagged by its own public reports.

To date, the EHD has acknowledged our queries, but no responses have been forthcoming. The lack of detailed disclosure has sown confusion among members of the public seeking to figure out which beaches were safe, and why some beaches were banned one week and fine the following week.

The EHD’s reports cover weekly sampling periods, with results for each week published after that period. This year, the first report covered 11 – 17 May, followed by three weekly reports covering the rest of May.

On Tuesday, the EHD released its third report on beach water quality, in which it listed the sandy beach in Exiles Bay as “closed” but failed to disclose what action was taken to actually warn the public beyond uploading a social media post.

No explanation was given for what caused poor water quality at any of the sites, nor how the list of “poor quality” sites was slashed from 15 to eight in just a week.

Earlier on Thursday, the EHD published a fourth update covering the last week of May, with an even lower number of beaches where poor water quality was reported, and no explanation for why Exiles Bay was closed one week and then suddenly marked as “excellent” the next.

The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) data on the quality of Malta’s beaches does not offer much clarification, either.

The EEA’s country report for Malta, which covers up to 2024, appears to suggest that Malta has not reported a single instance of poor water quality in any of the samples taken between 2009 and 2024.

The EEA’s fact sheet does not seem to match the local authorities’ public reports, which have flagged multiple instances of poor water quality at several sites over the years.

The Shift checked three sample reports published by Malta’s EHD before 2024, all of which marked at least one site being repeatedly flagged for poor water quality (July 2022, July 2023, October 2023). None of those flagged sites is noted in the EEA’s country report for Malta.

The EEA’s report notes that its data is sourced from local authorities for each member state, contributing to its public database. The EHD falls under the responsibility of the Superintendent for Public Health within the Health Ministry.