DIARRHEA BY THE SEA

We are all victims of the allure of holidays by the sea. There is nowhere stronger in its allure than the Mediterranean, but recent reports seem to make that place a little less attractive. "The pristine white beach that stretches for miles here is one of Albania's most popular holiday destinations. But the water is a toxic brew, contaminated with untreated sewage and industrial pollutants. Durres's pollution is among the region's worst, labelled in 2006 by the European Union as a hot spot. But across the Mediterranean, millions of tons of pollution and waste are emptied into the sea each year, according to the United Nations. Some comes from factories or the runoff from agriculture. But untreated sewage is also a major cause. More than half the sewage from Mediterranean coastal development seeps into the sea untreated. Although that percentage is lower than in some other parts of the world – in Latin America, 80 percent of sewage is untreated – the problem is particularly acute in the Mediterranean, whose closed geography means that it takes 100 years to renew its waters."
(Yahoo News, 15 January) Capitalism buggers up everything, even our fortnight "away from it all". RD