Peter Agius calls on EU Commission to investigate Malta's sea water sampling quality

MEP Peter Agius has urged the European Commission to conduct an independent audit and sampling of seawater quality in Malta. 

This comes after the Nationalist Party stated that government tried to cover up its failure in addressing a sewage crisis by removing environmental protections from a sensitive marine area.

In a statement on Friday, Peter Agius said the “deletion" of these sensitive areas, means that Malta will designate no coastal waters as sensitive to sewage flows for the next EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive reporting cycle. 

Agius condemned this, stating that instead of addressing sewage flows into the sea, the government has "just deleted the maps". He described this as an attempt to "roll back" Maltese law to circumvent EU scrutiny.

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The MEP noted that a revised EU Directive came into force in January of this year, introducing stricter controls and environmental limits on the release of nutrients, alongside new standards for micropollutants. 

He notes that Malta had already been found in breach of less stringent seawater quality standards in October of the previous year. Agius indicated that the new, higher standards now raise questions about the government's ability to comply.

Agius further highlighted existing concerns regarding the reliability of water sampling by Maltese authorities, adding the Commission had previously expressed doubts about the testing protocols and accuracy of seawater testing conducted by Maltese authorities in procedures leading up to last year's court case. 

As government announced an extension to the sewage treatment plant in Taċ-Ċumnija and published a tender for an agricultural sewage treatment plant in Magħtab, with works anticipated to take up to five years, Agius questioned whether this means "another 5 years of sewage in the sea". 

He noted that residents are experiencing and perceiving the problem directly, yet government is "hiding behind technical thresholds while ignoring the public outcry."