Call for public cooperation to keep beaches clean

Greater cooperation from the public would help keep the beaches clean and safe, Joe Micallef, director at the Department of Tourism, which incorporates the beach cleaning division said.

The department did its best to provide the necessary bins: what was needed was for them to be used appropriately, Mr Micallef said.

He said more than half the bins placed in some of the most popular bays just disappear.

"In areas where bins are not available, beach goers may place their waste in a plastic bag and take it away to dispose of it properly elsewhere."

Mr Micallef said that such public cooperation was important considering the effort and the cost involved in keeping beaches clean day after day.

During 2001, the department paid out some Lm58,000 to contractors for beach cleaning.

And in the first six months this year, that is before the summer season really got underway, the department had already cleared 500 tons of material from the beaches, Mr Micallef added.

The beach cleaning section is made up of 74 general hands with assistant technical officers and supervisors and is equipped with eight trucks and two Scammels operated by contractors.

Malta is strategically divided into three sections, comprising the north, central and south areas, with a workshop at St Angelo.

The beach cleaning unit has been operating for some 25 years and only covers Malta, since beach cleaning in Gozo falls under the responsibility of the Ministry for Gozo.

Mr Micallef said the most popular sandy beaches are situated in the northern part of Malta and include Ghadira, Golden Bay and Ghajn Tuffieha, Armier and Gnejna, along with other smaller beaches.

Other beaches, which are not sandy but which also need cleaning are those at Bugibba, Qawra, Sliema, St Julian's and Bahar ic-Caghaq in the central part of the island while those in the south include Marsascala, Birzebbuga, Wied iz-Zurrieq and Ghar Lapsi among others.

Mr Micallef said the work of the beach cleaners depended in intensity according to the time of the year, with summer being the busiest period, as would be expected.

A distinction had to be made between the various types of waste removed from the beaches.

Algae was not considered as rubbish in a sense that it gathered naturally. The real problem was waste and litter which are left on beaches after barbecues and outings.

"Certain people just leave litter on the sand or dump it near the rubbish bins, not to mention the vandalism on the bins," Mr Micallef said.

He estimated that the department installs some 800 new bins each year in various localities. More than half of these are either burnt, taken away or thrown into the sea, he said.

Mr Micallef said the workload by beach cleaners even varied between a Monday in summer, when many people go out on the traditional xalata following the feast of their locality, other days of the week, and on weekends when many hold barbecues.

At times staff working in the unit are shifted from one section to another to cope with the loads of rubbish in some of the most popular beaches after the festa outings or barbecues.

Mr Micallef said leaving burning charcoal buried in the sand was a dangerous practice that should be discouraged as this could injure other people, including the cleaners.

At times, charcoal buried under a thin layer of sand, remained hot until the morning when beach cleaners went to work.

Mr Micallef said a substantial amount of cleaning work, apart from raking, was done manually. Although cleaners were equipped with gloves and boots as a precaution, some of them may abuse and fail to use the protective clothing, putting them at risk, not just from the coals but also from other dangerous objects such as syringes and glass.

The sand on the beaches is also sifted every month in the most popular beaches. This job at the four most popular beaches in the north is carried out by contractors engaged by the local councils of that region while the rest of the beaches are sifted by the department.

Mr Micallef said that some of the department staff had been sent to France to attend a course on oil pollution of the shore.