”As this election season rages, Abela has offered Gozo 100 proposals. Borg 110. I have one.

Safeguard our lives.

Right now, E. coli pollution near Wied ta’ Zejta in Victoria may pose a serious health threat. Worse, this information was not made known to the public for years.

Let me share my story.

When I first moved to Triq l-Ewropa in Victoria in October 2023, it was paradise.

It was a pleasure to stroll by the stream near a row of vernacular Maltese buildings. Behind those buildings was rocky, open landscape filled with darting dragonflies and bees buzzing near wild fennel – an ideal spot for children to watch ducks and geese swim in the water.

Then the drills came.

Without warning, one day the bulldozers tore down the stone buildings. They ripped up the land to make way for yet another Portelli edifice.

I watched the disappearing landscape with a sinking heart. The noise, which sometimes lasted from 7:00 – 21:30, was extreme. The dust triggered my asthma -I had to keep the windows closed constantly.

And then, dead birds.After I came home from a holiday in the Netherlands in late September 2024, a horror awaited me.

On 1 October (my birthday, no less), I took a walk by the stream – and froze as dozens of rotting waterfowl carcasses and sick birds gasping their last breaths floated by. Some had decomposed to the point where they were nothing but skeletons, indicating they were there for weeks.

I spent my entire birthday calling authorities and writing emails – and got the usual runaround as each office referred me to another.

It wasn’t until two weeks later that the CPD sent two biohazard professionals to remove the birds. There were so many, they couldn’t complete the job.

How could it take weeks to respond to a potential health crisis?

I initially thought the deaths were caused by Portelli’s new construction, as workers were spray-washing cement runoff into the water – which I reported.ERA ordered them to desist, but I have caught (and reported) them repeating this violation several times.

In addition to birds, I found two dead baby hedgehogs near the stream, as well as a floating dead rat. I became desperate for answers as to why these animals died. Was it the construction? Avian flu? E coli? Was this dangerous for humans?

I begged the authorities for water quality testing and to release the results to the public. ECO-Gozo assured me they would, but I heard nothing.

On 14 Oct. 2024, Luke Said (now-PN-candidate) pressed them for information. They responded that water tests had been conducted and that the water was “clean.” The waterfowls’ death was identified as “excessive white bread.”

This was the most absurd explanation I ever heard in my life.

I pushed ECO-Gozo to release results of the water testing. All they would say was that the results were “publicly accessible through a response to a Parliamentary Question.”

I asked how to submit a Parliamentary Question. They ignored me.

Eventually, I became too overwhelmed to pursue the issue. It caused me so much anxiety that, for my own mental health, I pushed it out of my mind. I reasoned that if there were a public health threat, the authorities would inform us.

I was wrong.

Recently, the Malta Rangers Unit reported raw sewage and human faeces entering the waterway where the dead waterfowl were found. Times of Malta reported tests conducted on October 9 and 15, 2024 confirmed high levels of E. coli in the water– the same week ECO-Gozo told us the bird deaths were caused by “white bread.”

So, were they lying to us?

On 19 May, I wrote to ECO-Gozo again about the current quality of the water and have received no reply.

Among the objectives listed on ECO-Gozo’s website are to: “ensure the environment contributes to the community’s health and sense of well-being.”

I literally laughed out loud when I read this – but I shouldn’t have.

This is serious.

Data from the medical journal Infectious Diseases and Therapy states: “E. coli pose a considerable risk to human health, representing the second most common cause of death linked to bacterial infections globally” (2025).

Granted, not all strains are pathogenic – but we have been given no information.

On 16 Oct. 2024, I publicly warned about the dangers of E. coli, submitting a piece to the press stating:

‘Water testing needs to be conducted without delay, and the findings made public. Outbreaks of E. coli in agricultural areas can cause illness and fatalities. Last year, 150 people were infected with E. coli in Sweden. In June, 67 people were admitted to the hospital in the UK due to an E. coli outbreak.”There are farms growing leafy green vegetables next to this water – have the authorities ensured the produce is safe? What of our drinking water? In 2006, contaminated spinach infected 204 people across 26 American states, leading to the hospitalisation of 104 and death of three people.

My faith in the basic decency of our officials is shattered.

This is not something that should be swept under the rug.

This is a matter of public health.

We have a right to know if we are at risk.

It is the job of the government to safeguard our lives.

Government, do your job.”

Dawn A. Saliba, Ph.D.

Photos by Dawn A. Saliba, Ph.D.

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