Nearly all of Malta’s swimming sites have been given the top ‘excellent’ ranking!
Nearly all of Malta’s glorious swimming spots met the EU’s strictest water quality standards last year, according to the European Environment Agency report.
Out of the 87 reported swimming sites around the Maltese Islands, 86 were given the top ‘excellent’ ranking. #YAS! The one spot that didn’t make the cut isn’t mentioned in the European report, but sits at one ranking below, still above the minimum quality requirements.
Malta ranks second in all of Europe in this regard, just behind Cyprus, and it’s 98.9 per cent ‘excellent’ rating has been unchanged for three years. Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania and Slovenia all reported at least ‘sufficient’ quality at their bays. The three countries that need to pull up their socks in this department were Italy, France and Spain.
Across Europe, just over 85 per cent of bathing sites were awarded the ‘excellent’ ranking. However, 95.4 per cent of the 21,831 swimming spots that were monitored in the 28 EU states just scraped through, just managing to met the minimum quality requirements. Yikes!
“Today, most Europeans enjoy excellent bathing water quality,” said EEA executive director Hans Bruyninck, mentioning that the efforts of the EU members states have paid off. “However, this is only one of the many components, ranging from tackling plastic pollution to protecting marine life, we need to work on in order to achieve healthier seas, lakes, and rivers.”