Water quality drops at Scottish beach

Deterioration in water quality at one Scottish beach has caused it to lose its Blue Flag status.

The Elie Harbour Beach, in Fife, was awarded the clean beach accolade more than ten years ago, but standards appear to have slipped in recent months.

Scottish Water said that it is working extremely hard to protect the water quality but that there will be consented spills from the company's sewer system during heavy rainfall.

Donna Niven, of environmental organisation Keep Scotland Beautiful, told the BBC: "We are pleased Elie Harbour will continue to be actively managed and that Seaside Award standards will be maintained - allowing visitors to access up-to-date information about the water quality."

Meanwhile, the Thanh Nien newspaper recently reported that Asian pig breeder San Miguel Pure Foods Vietnam will be forced to pay a VND1.3 billion (£44,000) fine after spilling 200,000 cubic metres of wastewater into a river in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam.

Written by Claire Manning