Updated 8.44pm with ERA statement.
Opposition leader Bernard Grech and scores of Facebook commenters slammed the government on Sunday as the seawater at Balluta Bay turned green.
Grech said in a Facebook post that the Maltese people and tourists deserved seas and an environment that were clean.
The government, he said, had not built on the investment made by PN governments in the drainage system and several bays were closed for some time this summer because of sewage overflows.
It was even more unacceptable that bays were contaminated for a month and a half, Grech said, promising that a PN government would make the necessary investment for the infrastructure to be able to cope.
Last May 24 the Environmental Health Directorate warned bathers not to swim in Balluta Bay after finding microbiological contamination of E.coli and I.enterococci, which affected the water quality and posed a risk to bather's health. That warning coincidentally was issued on the same day that the prime minister led celebrations to mark a €40 million investment in the five-star Marriott Hotel, which overlooks the bay.
The authorities renewed their warning on Balleta Bay on June 1.
On July 5 the Water Services Corporation said sewage has stopped seeping into the bay after repairs on a leaky storm drain tunnel. A spokesperson said two instances of E. coli contamination in Balluta were not from the sewage system, but the corporation still assisted in the necessary repairs.
A “commercial entity” was found to be the source of one case and the health authorities resolved the issue. The second source of contamination was coming from a stormwater tunnel that ended in the bay, a spokesperson had said. Repairs were being handled by the Public Works Department.
ERA to investigate
Many commenters on Sunday cheekily called the situation in Balluta Bay as the government's latest 'Project Green'.
The Environment and Resources Authority in a statement on Sunday evening said that following reports of green water "in a number of bays around Malta," it was investigating the situation with the Environmental Health Directorate.
"Samples will be collected and analysed, so as to determine the cause of these episodes," it said, adding that algal blooms may occur due to high temperatures and reduced water circulation, conditions typical of heatwaves such as the one Malta is currently experiencing.
Ballutta was also closed several times because of contamination in summer last year.