Birzebbuga residents protest against proposed landfill

Birzebbuga residents and representatives of different organisations yesterday evening marched in protest against siting a proposed landfill in Benghajsa.

Protesters who took part in the event, which was organised by the Action Committee Le Ghall-Mizbla f'Benghajsa, walked from near the parish church towards Pretty Bay until they reached Wied il-Buni.

Committee chairman Joe Baldacchino said the protest was held to send the authorities a clear message - that a proposed landfill in Birzebbuga would only bring problems to the locality.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has shortlisted two possible sites for a controlled landfill, one at Ghallis and the other at Benghajsa.

The Benghajsa site is about 900 metres by 600 metres and consists of arable land, farmhouses and residences for about 100 people.

Representatives of the 24 or so groups, committees or organisations connected with the town also took part in the protest.

"We are not going to get involved in the debate over where the landfill should be located - all we're saying is that Benghajsa is not the right place," Mr Baldacchino said.

He said the committee had commissioned a report which would also prove that a landfill in Birzebbuga would be detrimental to the locality. Details of the report will be released to the media next week.

Mr Baldacchino warned that his committee was prepared to take action against anybody who turned the issue into a political one.

"This protest is for all the people of Birzebbuga, and it is not a political issue - we are insisting on that," he said.

In a statement, the Nationalist Party Birzebbuga councillors said they refrained from taking part in yesterday's protest as it was evident that the Labour Party's participation was merely driven by partisan interests.

The PN said that during a meeting with the local council on July 29, Labour leader Alfred Sant had never said that there should not be a landfill in Birzebbuga, the PN said.

"Therefore the PN councillors are amazed how MLP councillors and the local Labour Party committee were politicising an activity in connection with the landfill."

The Labour committee even went to the extreme of distributing a leaflet stating that the protest was being organised between the local council and the MLP committee and that Labour MP Joe Mizzi would be making an address, when this was not the case, the PN said.

In reply, the Birzebbuga MLP councillors said the PN councillors came up with a lame excuse so as not to upset the government.

The MLP said that contrary to the role of PN councillors, their Labour counterparts were not canvassers or party candidates.

"The protest is simply one against a proposed landfill 500 metres away from a residence, which is reserved as a zone for industrial expansion," the MLP said.

In another statement, Resources and Infrastructure Minister Francis Zammit Dimech stressed that the site for a landfill had still not been chosen.

It was worth pointing out, the minister said, that the terms of reference suggested by the local council had actually been incorporated in the terms of reference handed to subsequent tenderers.

Only after a serious and objective study on the environmental impact of the landfill is carried out, will the site be chosen, Dr Zammit Dimech said. The choice of sites for an engineered landfill, which is not the same as a dump, was made before 1998, the minister said.

In fact, a report with seven earmarked sites, three of which were in Benghajsa, had been presented to then environment minister George Vella.

At no point did the former Labour government raise any objections to the proposed sites, Dr Zammit Dimech said.