Change is in the air

Immediate results are what people usually want. (Often you will find that the same people are unwilling to make distinct changes to their lifelong behaviour or spending patterns.)

There is nothing immediate about the way our environment is improving as we have been told it must. Change is slow to happen except when it is destructive.

A number of conferences, seminars and information meetings held last month offer an indication that we really might be on the doorstep of a cleaner, greener future, providing we are committed to crossing that particular threshold.

It will require keeping a steady eye on our target (the environmentalists are bound to point it out if we stray from the path) while being prepared to make initial individual sacrifices for long-term community gain.

Let's hope our politicians are grown up enough to promote that principle. If they cannot lead, they should follow or get out of the way.

Committed to healthier air

"Children are the best indicators," according to Health Minister Dr Louis Deguara, who opened a recent seminar on air pollution organised by the Cleaner Technology Centre and the Clean Air Board. The board, headed by Dr Lucienne Licari, plans to extend its indoor air monitoring programme for schools.

We are currently in something of a vacuum as we wait for the Clean Air Act to be replaced by the Public Health Act which, when passed by Parliament, will bring more extensive EU directives on air quality into being.

Vehicle ownership and electricity consumption (mostly air-conditioners) are on the rise. Emissions from traffic are on a par with emissions from the power stations.

Readings show that dust or particulate matter (PM, as it is known scientifically) frequently exceeds the established guidelines considerably. The smaller the particle, the more damaging it is as it goes deep into the tissues of the lung.

There is new evidence that tiny particles of two and a half microns (PM2.5) effect not just the respiratory system but can damage the whole immune system, causing a range of other diseases.

The larger particles (PM10 or more) are often from natural sources but the smaller and more dangerous particles of dust usually come from man-made sources. Inefficient home-made dust collectors used in industry are among the culprits.

Dr Louis Vella, new head of the Pollution Control Co-ordinating Unit now operating within MEPA, sees a clear need to identify and control the origin of dusts and generally keeping the public informed with up-to-the minute reports on air quality.

Dr Ray Ellul, climate expert at the University's Physics Department, spoke of the major impact on the Mediterranean climate from shipping emissions, much of it from Maltese-registered ships.

He predicts a "severe decrease" in precipitation for the Maltese Islands (in the light of which perhaps MEPA should begin to revise some of its policies for large water-consuming projected developments).

"Man-made particulates in the Mediterranean Basin are going to cause problems within the next 20 to 30 years." Rain will move further north or to the southern tropical regions while Mediterranean countries will become drier. Large scale research on emissions from aircraft may become possible with help from the EU Fifth framework.

After consulting with other small island states such as Malta at the Johannesburg Summit, Dr Jason Bonnici (who is also an active member of Nature Trust) noted that we are "really lagging behind" as regards solar energy. Cyprus and Madagascar make much better use of solar energy.

The Environmental Health Unit is developing a Webpage for interaction with a public who wants to be more in the know about air quality. Unit head Charles Bonnici said that the World Health Organisation considers that there is no safe minimum amount for cancer-causing benzene.

An EU directive strives to keep levels below 1.5 parts per billion. It was noted that the European maximum limit was exceeded at four schools in central and southern Malta.

An international study of asthmatic allergies presented by Dr Stephen Montefort puts Malta third in the world for rhinoconjunctivis (itchy eyes) after Nigeria and Paraguay.

Audrey Testaferrata from the Transport Authority said that air pollution was responsible for a Lm31,000 bill for cleaning the Port des Bombes monument. Non-essential car parking should be removed, she said, to reduce cars on the road and more orientation to other forms of transport (electric buses, bicycles, etc) is being given by the ADT (Awtorita Dwar it-Trasport ta' Malta).

Studies are beginning to confirm the obvious. Fumes from Maghtab are having a direct effect on the health of our children. The latest EU Commission report on Malta's accession underlines the importance of the efforts needed to fulfil what it considers to be an "extremely tight schedule" for the closing of the dangerous waste bonfires that pass as rubbish dumps on both Malta and Gozo. At the seminar the Health Minister made a point of stressing that "Maghtab will definitely be closed by the end of 2004".

Those power station filters

Engineer Raymond Azzopardi from Enemalta gave a history of steps taken by the corporation in the direction toward healthier air:

Vanadium and asphaltene contained in the grade of fuel oil being used have been found to lower the combustion temperature and produce more carbon in the ash. Their presence also requires that the fuel is dosed with an additive to neutralise them.

A planned switch to an even better (more expensive) grade of fuel oil containing less sulphur will reduce these undesirable chemicals significantly.

Lung irritant nitrous oxide is to be cut down by changing the burner guns on the boilers. Controlling the oxygen feed is another way of keeping pollution levels down. Too much air and you get white smoke, which means a high level of nitrous oxide pollution coming out of the chimney. Too little air will result in carbon-laden black smoke.

Enemalta is striving to eventually maintain the oxygen supply to boilers at two per cent for a colourless emission.

Idle and inactive electrostatic precipitators were converted by Enemalta into dust collectors at a cost of Lm130,000. Instead of being by-passed as recommended by consultants, these are now being operated with the electricity supply switched off and serve as a mechanical filter. As a result the amount of dust released into the environment is two tons per day less.

Enemalta marked 25 years of powering the nation last month. The anniversary was celebrated with a two-day conference on Energy and the Environment. While there is talk of preserving one of the underground power stations at either Marsa or Corradino as a museum, the corporation has its eye firmly fixed on the future.

Two speakers from the Italian gas company ENI focused on the project to connect Malta to the Sicilian gas network supplying clean burning fuel. Those present also heard what Israel had accomplished in the field of energy conservation over the past quarter of a century.

Saturday morning was dedicated to renewable energy, highlighting the work done by the Faculty of Engineering and the Department of Physics at the University of Malta. These looked at wind generation and photovoltaic (PV) systems as well as the use of electric vehicles.

The Institute for Energy Technology contributed with a critical appraisal on overcoming barriers to the use of renewable and non-renewable energy and water. A consultant from Advanced Industrial Systems spoke on how to effectively control energy use in buildings.

Sustainable architecture

Architects can do their bit for air quality too. One sustainable building may look quite different from the next. It is what lies beneath the surface that makes it sustainable.

The Chamber of Architects is out to prove wrong the "popular perception of a disastrous built environment" by adopting an approach to building design that is positive, holistic and integrated. Setting the ball rolling in the wake of the Johannesburg Summit, the aim is to help create a national programme to reach the goal of sustainable development.

Opening an international conference on The Culture of Sustainability, President Guido de Marco said that he did not believe in the purported clash between economic and sustainable development and it was architecturally unsound to put these in a situation of conflict.

He noted a certain impatience in the country, adding that it was necessary to ensure this impatience was translated to the political element.

Professor de Marco noted: "No building is ever private - it has an influence on others." A building had to be practical, durable and beautiful, he said, adding: "Beauty is a human right... We tend to forget it in our everyday struggle to build and construct"..

Top architects from Finland, Sweden, Germany and Portugal showed how buildings could be made more environment-friendly and constructed in a sustainable way to save on resources and cut down on pollution.

Finnish architectural policy actively supports sustainability on a life-cycle basis and assures that all institutions support good architecture.

If you have ever detected a slight headache coming on after walking into a newly constructed building with all the associated smells (e.g., formaldehyde from chipboard) you will be interested in what architecture can do for sustainability.

Much attention is paid to indoor air quality and materials emissions. The Finnish Building Information Foundation (www.rts.fi) is now becoming active in Russia where, not unlike Malta, there is a void where information on construction material is concerned.

Sustainable innovations in building design include heat recovery from ventilation systems, the use of wind breaking elements and storm water use.

Speaking on conservation of resources such as energy, water and wood, Architect Varis Bokalders from Sweden said: "If we go on with business as usual we will need four planets but we have only one."

Presenting two extremes, he explained how vacuum toilets can now use as little as half a litre of water while the world's biggest consumer, the United States still has 25-litre flush toilets.

The technology for reducing water use in toilets, taps and showers is there but needs to be applied.

Electrical installations should be installed away from bedrooms to avoid too much exposure to electro-magnetic fields, another cause of "sick building syndrome".

Sustainability can be applied to existing buildings by removing asbestos and transformers containing PCBs. Paints contain some of the worst toxic chemicals. Monitoring by MEPA's clean air team has picked up dangerously high levels of toluene at a freshly painted school in Qormi.

Livia Tirone, designer of the Torre Verde bio-climatic tower featured at Lisbon's EXPO 98, said that applications suitable to Mediterranean conditions had to be found rather than rigidly applying examples from other countries.

Ms Tirone has chaired a Brussels task force on sustainable architecture which helped produce the Building Energy Efficiency Directive.

Gozo waste transfer station

Let's say you are a fridge in Gozo. After years of faithful service chilling gbejniet and beer, your owner decides you are looking a bit rusty and is soon on the phone ordering a new model to replace you.

Your mates have already met a similar ending and now sit sadly in a field doing their best to look the part while sticking out a mile in some rubble wall. The government even has a campaign to remove you as a white no-good, along with all those inferior rusty oil drums.

But all is not so dark. The Minister for Gozo has just announced the future opening of a civic amenity as part of the Gozo waste transfer station. What does it all mean to a fridge like you?

Well, your owner, instead of carting you off to some anonymous and highly illegal tip, will now phone Ziju Karist to come along with his 4WD and proudly convey you in broad daylight to the civic amenity site specially designed to give you and all concerned a happy future life. Here you will join others of your kind - veteran cookers, senior hot water geysers and pensionable washing machines - as you are disembarked into a walk-in container to await the ferry trip to Malta.

As you await transfer, you will spend the next few days swapping tales with a variety of household and electronic equipment which, like you, are in transit to Malta and no longer doomed to litter the Gozitan countryside.

You will observe cars pulling up at the container next door where green waste such as garden cuttings can be tipped by Ziju Karist and his friends from the top of a staircase. When those cars eventually turn into rusting discards too they will be brought to the end-of-life vehicle facility specially built next door.

Machinery will help compress and compact other waste into smaller parcels, leaving more room in each container for more and more of Gozo's waste. That means no more landfills in Gozo for your kind or any of Auntie Giswalda's qarabali tops and tails or potato peelings.

If auntie and uncle don't separate or compost organic waste, then it will have to be done further down the chain at the transfer station. No more waste of this type will be allowed in landfills anywhere. Not even on Malta. But success all depends on your owner.

If everything goes according to plan the only type of waste Gozo will have to cope with is stone from digging up foundations and pulling down old buildings.

We hope there won't be too much of this in Gozo. At any rate the island should gain a much better environment by exporting waste to Malta for recycling and treatment and closing down the Xaghra dump for good together with Maghtab.