Environmental campaigners have renewed a call for the island to adopt stricter modern bathing water standards for its beaches.

Currently the data displayed on boards at bathing spots is assessed according to an EU directive from 1976, whereas the UK has already adopted standards based on the more modern 2006 directive.

Peter Christian of Friends of the Earth said the group had been petitioning for modern water quality standards and to end raw sewage discharge into rivers and the sea. Well over 1,000 people have already signed, including 750 online at change.org

He said he was ’baffled’ by the government’s reticence to adopt the higher standard.

’When the UK adopted the 2006 regs they had a four-year lead-in period, starting in 2011, culminating in full adoption from January 2015,’ said Mr Christian. ’As the current administration has committed to completion of the regional sewage treatment strategy by the end of their five years, it seems to FOE this is the obvious time to formally start the same four-year process, the timing fits perfectly.’

Replying to a Tynwald question in March, from Julie Edge MHK (Onchan), Environment Minister Geoffrey Boot said there was a commitment to adopt modern standards in four years, but financial constraints meant he could not give a ’cast iron guarantee’.

He said new treatment works for Ramsey would soon be on line but other sources of pollution generally needed addressing.

Mr Christian said: ’To my mind these are not compelling arguments as to why the island should not come into line with the rest of Europe and the UK. DEFA already assesses water samples against both 1976 and 2006 standards, and publishes the results on its website, though only the 1976 figures on boards at beaches.’

In fact, 79.75 per cent of island samples were rated ’excellent’ according to the 2006 measure in 2016, compared with 69.5 per cent in the UK. But in the Isle of Man 8.25 per cent of samples were ’good’ and 12 per cent ’poor’, compared with 23.7 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively, in the UK.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Christian said: ’EU bathing water standards give an honest picture of the state of our beaches. I cannot think of any reasonable argument why we should lag behind the UK and Europe in using standards which are 30 years out of date.

’The government has committed to stopping raw sewage discharge by 2021, which is to be applauded. This time scale is the exact fit for committing now to the four-year lead-in to full adoption of the 2006 standards.’

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