greenwatch

DAVID PACE THIS WEEK SPEAKS ABOUT THE LATEST ENVIRONMENTAL TRAGEDY HIGHLIGHTED BY THE MEDIA, SEA POLLUTION, WHICH HE BELIEVES COULD CAUSE IRREPARABLE DAMAGE TO THE TOURIST INDUSTRY

Our dirty sea

A choice of tainted seas
A TV advert warns that 40,000 people depend on tourism and we should look after tourists. The advert is right of course, but conveniently forgets the government’s huge responsibility in safeguarding tourism.

Week after week, the Islands’ most popular bays and coastal areas have been declared unfit for bathing. Not a week passes and another popular bay is added to the list of polluted areas. This is a clear sign that the government is abdicating its responsibility to safeguard the sea, one of our major tourist resources.

The growing list of contaminated areas includes parts of Birzebbugia, Marsaxlokk and Marsascala; the three most popular bathing areas in the south; and long stretches of St Paul’s Bay, Bugibba and most of Xemxija in the North.

The long and winding north-easterly coastline is suffering the ravages of whatever is seeping out of the Maghtab monstrosity. In high summer, it used to provide decent swimming, diving, barbecue and camping areas to thousands of Maltese people. A good number have decided to ignore the health warnings and are still frequenting the area; while others are opting for cleaner bays such as Mellieha, Golden, Armier and Marfa Bays.

For an island that sells a tourist product based on the sun and sea, we are treating this resource very shoddily indeed.

The problem of marine pollution in Malta is complicated by being comprised of three types: sewage, oil and chemical pollution.

A few may still remember the Birzebbuga residents protesting against oil-seepage from Enemalta plants.

Has Enemalta stopped the seepage?

Of course not and the warning against swimming is still there.

A few years ago works on the sewage outflow at Marsascala had supposedly solved the problem.

Why is it seeping out once again?

Probably the least studied and yet most dangerous is the chemical pollution from the Maghtab landfill.

Amid all the talk of studies and reports, hundreds of thousands of tourists return to their countries and complain that most of our country’s beaches are unfit for swimming.

Why should the MTA chide us instead of the authorities’ lack of care?

Why should the MTA spend millions of liri promoting Malta while the authorities don’t seem to care about the image that our shoddy island projects?

Analysis
Marine pollution has become widespread due to the disperse and dilute attitude of most countries. For many years, everyone argued that the oceans and seas were so large and deep that all the pollution dumped would be rendered harmless by dilution with water.
Among the most polluted seas are the Mediterranean and the North Sea. The latter has the added hazard of being contaminated by radioactive waste and seepage from a number of nuclear power stations found on its coastline.

The North Sea is something of an embarrassment, being delimited by some of the most powerful EU members who have been unable to agree on a policy of containment and who are still dumping and contaminating its waters.

This shows that although EU countries are way ahead of Malta in keeping high environmental standards, such standards depend on how disciplined a country actually is.
Frankly, I do not have much faith in the capabilities of the Maltese governments in safeguarding the environment.

Main types of marine pollution
In the North Sea a lot of pollution is brought to the sea by rivers. The Mediterranean, being drier, has a much smaller river outflow and suffers less from riverine pollution. Of course, it makes up for it by having much higher levels of:

Sewage: Many countries are too poor to treat sewage, so excretory products and sanitary items are dumped directly into the sea. Apart from the lack of hygiene, proliferation of bacteria breaks down the organic matter into nitrates and phosphates. These act as fertilisers and cause algae blooms. The algae grows so fast that it uses up most of the oxygen dissolved in the water suffocating fish and sea-life. Bacterial proliferation also contributes to the spate of rashes and ear-infections which are so common during the summer season.

Oil: The Mediterranean is still a major route for oil-tankers. These pass through the Suez Canal to reach oil-rich Middle-Eastern and Arabian countries. Many ships plying international waters use pumped sea-water to clean their tanks. It is also not uncommon for oil tankers to run aground and spill vast quantities of oil killing great numbers of wildlife and polluting beaches.

Direct dumping: People living on coastal settlements, campers and bathers all contribute to dumping into the sea. Plastic bottles, bags and wrappers, and aluminium and polythene containers are the worst offenders. Plastic bags have been known to kill loggerhead turtles and jellyfish-eating fish.

Industrial waste: Many factories dump chemicals and toxic compounds into the sea including the heavy metals, mercury and lead and poisonous chemicals, the dioxins and furans. All are extremely poisonous substances and have been found in great concentrations in deformed fish and sea-mammals.

Agricultural run-off: Farm waste and water contaminated with fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides end up in the sea during the rainy season. In Malta, many farmers use pesticides indiscriminately. These chemicals are extremely poisonous and it is very difficult to calculate the percentage that ends up in the sea. Agricultural run-off also causes algae blooms. Deformed sea-life has been found with extremely high concentrations of pesticides.