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MALTA has the highest population den- sity in the EU amounting to 1,783 persons per square kilometre, as esVictor Axiak- timated at the end of 2023. Its coastline is characterised by cliff formations on its south-eastern side for the mainland Mal- ta and for Gozo; where the sandy pocket beaches are very small, while most of its larger sandy beaches or beaches lie on the north-eastern aspect of the island. Malta has always been known for its clean bathing beaches which represent an important economic asset and one of the reasons for which tourists visit the island. The island has enjoyed a thriving econo- my over the past years, partly due to the tourist industry. Coupled with the enormous increase in the tourism industry, the increase in res- ident population has led to challenges to environmental management and state of the environment. In this report, bathing water quality was assessed for the period 2013-2024 for seven most popular beaches as follows: Sliema, St George's Bay (Paceville), St Paul's Bay, Mellieħa Bay, Xlendi, Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa. Such water quality was assessed using levels of Escherichia coli as monitored weekly for fixed stations during the bathing season (May to September—23 weeks) and as reported online by the En- vironmental Health Directorate using materials and methods as provided by the relevant EU Directive. The 95 percentile values of E. coli were computed for year- ly data for each beach. It is to be noted that almost all reported bathing waters (99.5%) were in line with the minimum quality standards of the directive. In the case of short-term pollution due to ex- ceptional circumstances, during which the beach is closed for swimming, the re- sults of bacterial counts are not included in the online data available and therefore not included in the investigations for this work. Any changes in bacterial levels at these seven beaches was correlated with data on resident population and tourist influx. Such data were available online from the National Statistics Office (NSO). The ex- tent of any correlation between different parameters was estimated using linear re- gression. Between 2013 and 2024, there was an increase in resident population of almost 27%. This was mostly due to the growth in the foreign population through immigra- tion from a wide range of other countries due to the thriving economy of the island as experienced throughout this decade. The influx of tourists almost doubled. When taking into account the total nights spent by incoming tourists per year, the population equivalent for tourists was calculated. This was added to the resident population for each year providing an estimate of the real impact that tourists and residents have on our resources. This resident population plus the population equivalent for the influx of tourists (ef- fective annual population) was estimated to have increased by almost 30% between 2013 to 2024 (Graph 1). Likewise there was an increase in the 95-percentile values of E.coli counts in all seven beaches (ranging from 2 to 9 times increase), though almost all reported bathing waters 99.5%) were in line with the minimum quality standards of the Bathing Waters Directive. Extent of correlation between the levels of bacteria at each beach and the whole island population as well as with tourist influx and effective population, showed a number of interesting results. As expect- ed there was a significant effect of the is- land's resident population on bacterial quality at all beaches except for Xlendi and Għajn Tuffieħa. However, the influx of tourists only had significant ef- fects on the bacterial levels of St George's Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa, suggesting an unequal distribution of incoming tourists influx to the various beaches. On the other hand, the most significant effects of the effective population (resi- dent plus tourists) were found at five of the beaches, except at Xlendi and Għajn Tuffieħa. Long term trends in bacterial levels at the seven beaches investigated during the bathing seasons (over the 12 year period) again showed some interesting results. For example, for three of such beaches (Graph 2), the best beach with the lowest bacterial counts was consistently Golden Bay. Xlendi Bay showed relatively high levels of pollution in 2015-16 period. This was probably due to overflows from nearby farms. This level of pollution sub- sequently declined, though over the last 5-6 years, there was a persistent upward trend in the bacterial levels at this locality. However, the most interesting change was found for the bacterial levels at St George's Bay. This showed a persistent upward trend, changing the beach from one of the best in Malta in 2013, to one of the worst (like Xlendi) over this period. The bacterial levels as used for this re- port are likely to be dependent on a range of factors, which may act independently of each other, but most likely in a com- plex interaction between such factors. These include: Density of bathers, the popularity of the beach, its accessibility, and the total yearly popu- lation load (plus tourist equivalent), the state of the coastal drainage system, the hydrody- namics of the beach and others. Also, any correlation reported above may be considered only as indicative Tourist and population influx and on long-term trends in bathing quality Victor Axiak Professor of biology 10 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 23 JULY 2025 OPINION