With the strong easterly winds and swell that cause sewage to wash ashore still prevailing, clean-up efforts along south shore beaches continued yesterday, while Government has promised to continue testing water quality as long as the weather patterns remain.

“On Sunday a weather pattern with easterly winds and swell was forecast. Due to this, the Department of Health planned a proactive beach assessment for Monday as these conditions were similar to those which brought the greaseballs ashore this time last year,” said a spokeswoman for the Ministries of Health and Environment.

According to a statement, which lays out a timeline on how the One Bermuda Alliance Government handled the appearance of sewage balls, water quality tests began on Monday at Elbow Beach, Grape Bay, Warwick Long Bay, Horseshoe Bay, Hungary Bay, John Smith’s Bay, Clearwater Beach, Shelly Bay, Tobacco Bay, and Snorkel Park, while “a thorough beach inspection was carried out by Health officials.”

“At 7.15pm on Monday, greaseballs were identified on Elbow Beach and Health officials made arrangements with the Department of Parks for a dawn clean-up. On Tuesday at 8am a dawn beach clean-up was concluded at Elbow Beach by Parks staff.”

Beach clean-ups were also done at Grape Bay beach, once in the morning and again in the evening.

Following a “special Cabinet committee” meeting on Tuesday morning, between Cabinet members and “technical officers and various stakeholders”, the spokeswoman said Government subsequently decided to alert the public of the presence of ‘greaseballs’ at 4pm that afternoon.

But Shadow Health Minister Zane DeSilva disagreed with the approach, adding he was “disappointed” solutions to the issue of the so-called ‘greaseballs’ — which The Royal Gazette first reported appearing in 2002 — took so long to gain traction.

“I disagree with Minister Moniz in saying ‘I’ll let the public know as close to real-time as I can’ when there should be an alert,” said the Progressive Labour Party representative.

“Well, the minute you have to do a test, I think you should alert the public saying: ‘Look, we have some concerns. We’re doing some testing. We’ll give you the results in the next 24 hours, but in the meantime you might want to be cautious about where and when you swim’.”

Efforts to clean up the sewage balls continued yesterday with Parks crews returning to Elbow Beach and Warwick Long Bay, where no more sewage was found. However, further ‘greaseballs’ were removed from Grape Bay beach yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Mr DeSilva has distanced himself from the problem, saying that the topic of ‘greaseballs’ was never brought to his attention while Health Minister, despite the issue having occurred several times under the Progressive Labour Party’s tenure in Government.

“All I can say is that during my time as Minister, it was never brought to my attention,” said Mr DeSilva.

“I’m not saying it didn’t happen under my watch, or even under the PLP’s watch, but I don’t remember this being highlighted in such a way over the last 14-15 years, I just don’t remember it.

“I’m not trying to wash the PLP’s hands of [this problem] at all, let me be clear about that. We’ve had the same system in place for many, many years.

“If one took my comments as saying that nobody should point a finger at us, no, I’m not saying that. Certainly the system was in place under our watch, as it was pre-1998, so I don’t think any Government in the past can [wash their hands of it.]”

Critics of comments made by Mr DeSilva yesterday pointed out that the issue was not limited to the current Government.

That view was roundly defended in a statement from the One Bermuda Alliance yesterday evening.

“Former Health Minister Zane Desilva issued a statement yesterday, saying that the One Bermuda Alliance has been exposed as lying and covering up the extent of the problem.

“In fact and in truth, our sewage problem has been known about for years,” read the statement. “If Mr DeSilva and his colleagues had been so concerned about it, they could easily have done something to fix the problem during the 13 years they spent in Government.

“This is not a problem the OBA created, and it’s not a problem the PLP created. It is a Bermuda problem, caused by the growing inability of some parts of our infrastructure to cope with the demands of life in the 21st century.”