BBQs - Are you a pig?

The Summer months are long and so is the Bar-B-Que fever. Unfortunately a morning walk at one of our beaches is often a reflection of the lack of altruism of the Maltese. Charcoal and all sorts of BBQ remains are spread out on our beaches. ECO, The Malta Ecological Foundation, invites the Matlese to leave nothing behind them after a BBQ so that everyone will be able to enjoy the beaches the next morning.

Furthermore the same people who dirty the beaches are quite often those who complain when the beach is dirty when they go to swim or organise another BBQ.

We expect everyone to show he is civilised and while enjoying bar-b-qued pork, avoid behaving like one. Furthermore BBQ remains encourage rodents to
reporduce and settle close to the beach besides being extremely dangerous (eg broken glass) for people walking on the beach and especially children playing.

Maltese demand immediate sewage treatment

ECO had conducted an opinion poll on a sample of 750 Maltese and Gozitans living in 66 localities during the 90s. Surveyors asked the sample whether they believed that the government should give priority to sewage treatment before other matters?

YES - 93.09 %

NO - 3.58 %

DON'T KNOW - 3.33 %

The result is a clear indication that the Maltese second ECOs request for sewage treatment. ECO believes that no drainage should be pumped into the Mediterranean. Currently the major part of untreated sewage is pumped out into the sea 720 metres from the coast at Wied Ghammieq. The rest is pumped into the sea from Ras il-Prajjiet and c-Cumnija in Malta and Wied il-Mielah and San Blas in Gozo. ECO once again stresses the need for the authorities to establish the four treatment plants proposed by the Danish Report.

Furthermore ECO calls on the government to use the 2nd class water, obtained after the treatment, for afforestation projects in the Maltese Islands, as well as for industrial use. These afforestation schemes should plant indigenous trees in both the urban and rural environment.

ECO, The Malta Ecological Foundation, notes that sewage may not only negatively affect the ecological balance of the sea but it is also the cause of many ear, nose and throat infections as well as stomach upsets due to bacteria and viruses. ECO therefore asks the pertinent authorities to immediately give priority to sewage treatment in the Maltese Islands.

Marine mammals

ECO urges the protection of Marine Mammals. Therefore ECO beleives that:

- no marine mammals should be captured from their natural habitat for any reason.
- no marine mammals should be kept in captivity for education, commercial, and/or any other purposes
- no commercial use or scientific exploitation should take place on marine mammals
- their should be no local or international trading of marine mammals.
- ECO favours the rehabilitation of marine mammals
- ECO condemns the killing of marine mammals for any purposes .

Consequently it became evident that besides educating people, the lobby should focus on stricter regulations rather than on the abolition. In fact two years later new stricter hunting regulations came in force amidst the violent pro-hunting lobby. Unfortunately, in 1997, a change in government led to a change in regulations to what they were before.

Sewage Treatment

Throughout the 1990's ECO campaigned for the treatment of all sewage in the Maltese Islands.

Currently only about 14% of all sewage is treated and the rest is disposed of in the seas of the Maltese Islands.

Nonetheless, in 1994 after lobbying by ECO with the Minister for the Environment, the government committed itself to treat ALL sewage by the
year 2003.

ECO believes that the treated water should be used for agriculture and especially for afforestation projects throughout the Islands.