Kenneth Glad
Gibraltar’s planned wastewater plant is intended to end decades of untreated discharges into the sea. It also highlights a practical consequence of Brexit: European authorities no longer have the same power to press the case.
Gibraltar awarded Eco Waters a 25-year contract in June 2025 to build a wastewater treatment plant at Europa Point, where sewage is still being released into the Mediterranean without treatment.
The paper reported that design and geotechnical work has begun, and that a planning application was submitted in March 2026.
Until the plant is operating, wastewater from roughly 40,000 residents and businesses continues to flow untreated into the sea.
The Gibraltar government has said, according to The Guardian, that the territory’s system presents unusual challenges because seawater is used in the sewers and drinking water comes from desalination.
Years of setbacks
The discharges have faced legal and political scrutiny for years. The British newspaper writes that the European court of justice ruled in 2017 that the UK had breached wastewater rules over Gibraltar, but Brexit later changed what the European Commission could do to pursue the matter.
An earlier fix failed before completion. In 2018, Gibraltar chose a joint venture involving NWG Commercial Services and Modern Water, but the plan collapsed after a Modern Water subsidiary went into liquidation.
The Gibraltar government said that the liquidation slowed delivery of the project. It also said talks with the European Investment Bank failed because the UK had left the EU.
Northumbrian Water rejected responsibility for the wastewater issue, saying: “Northumbrian Water was never responsible in any way for wastewater operations in Gibraltar.”
Coastline pressure
The outlet also reported that environmental groups have pointed to visible pollution on Gibraltar’s shoreline. Lewis Stagnetto, of the Nautilus Project, described “wet wipes and plastic pollution entangled in algae and all over the rocks”.
For local campaigners, the sewage problem is not just an infrastructure delay. It is a threat to the coastline Gibraltar depends on for tourism, wildlife and public confidence in clean beaches.
The Gibraltar government said bathing-water testing is carried out and that “all bathing areas in Gibraltar attain excellent bathing water quality.”
Hugo Tagholm, director of Oceana UK, told The Guardian: “The public are outraged that our rivers and seas are treated as a dumping ground.”
The pressure now is on Gibraltar to turn its latest contract into a working plant.
Source: The Guardian
