Credibility and the environment

The communications co-ordinator of the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure describes my criticism as predictable (The Sunday Times, June 16) because I keep picking on the Project Description Statement (PDS) of the proposed landfills issued by the Ministry.

The PDS lends itself to a lot of criticism because it is a document that lacks credibility. It is significant that the ministry has not responded to my challenge to tell us the credentials in landfilling, if any, of the persons involved in the writing and compilation of the PDS, in which international regulations on landfilling should have been incorporated.

Much more predictable was the ministry's response to my comment on the recycled building materials working party. My comment implied what real action has been taken on building waste. The ministry predictably responds by telling us that this working party has commissioned a report. Undoubtedly, this will be yet another report added to the myriad reports gathering dust on Dr Zammit Dimech's bookshelf.

We need to find a solution to Malta's largest waste stream problem. Building and excavation waste has especially increased since the PA placed constraints on developers from building higher. This decision pushed more developers to excavate below ground level, resulting in a huge increase in rock waste which has inflated the Maghtab landfill, with no planned recycling to compensate for this increase.

This is just another case of bad planning made worse by the PA's belated revocation of constraints on building heights which has now inflated the price of properties with a private roof.

I have devoted my attention to the Maghtab landfill and the proposed engineered landfills not because there is nothing to talk about on the environment. There is much to say about the overall environmental degradation and pollution which have reached alarming levels in this country. However, the way we tackle the landfills problem would set the course for solutions to other environmental problems.

It is therefore alarming when Dr Zammit Dimech declares that he intends to use waste from Maghtab landfill for government (and possibly private) projects.

Effectively, Dr Zammit Dimech intends to solve the Maghtab problem by spreading its contaminated waste all over the island. The minister is being highly irresponsible. He should know that studies have already shown that the groundwater under Maghtab is undrinkable since it is contaminated at least by heavy metal (contamination by organic substances cannot be excluded; after all, documents show that Dr Zammit Dimech's ministry openly allowed the dumping of biohazardous waste at Maghtab).

To add insult to injury, Dr Zammit Dimech chooses to compare the proposed engineered landfills to Maghtab landfill. He tries to hide his ministry's incompetence and needless squandering of money on consultants by telling us that the engineering landfills will be better than Maghtab, as if this landfill is a benchmark of quality.

The fact remains that his ministry has ignored the accepted standards and procedures used in developed countries for locating and designing a new landfill. If Dr Zammit Dimech wants to be credible he should admit his mistake and revise the entire landfill proposed.

Nationalist Members of Parliament keep stretching the argument on the landfills issue because the government will remain obstinate in keeping to its path leading to disaster. Rather than listen to the Opposition, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, referring to my timely criticism of the proposed landfills, wrote (The Times, June 17): "Opposition to these landfills... is reminiscent of the sporadic attacks on the waste recycling plant in the limits of Marsascala."

These sporadic attacks were the justified complaints by Marsascala residents on the terrible odour which reached their homes from the solid waste recycling/composting, plant built in 1993.

Mr Pullicino Orlando does well in comparing the proposed landfills with the waste re-cycling plant because just like the proposed landfills, the waste recycling plant was located in the wrong place and used technology with a high environmental impact.

Labour knows that the PN does not learn from its past mistakes. It is already clear that these landfills will absorb a lot of taxpayers' money, but on completion their operations will have to be drastically reduced for public health reasons. This is precisely what happened to the waste recycling plant which has to cut down its capacity for composting solid waste by more than half to reduce the nuisance and hazard of bad odours. Evidently, the landfills will become another PN white elephant.

Inadvertently, Mr Pullicino Orlando also reminds us that it was the Labour government in 1998 which introduced the Eco-Pod system at the recycling plant to mitigate the bad planning of the previous PN administration. History will repeat itself and a Labour government will have to be called again by the people to mitigate the harm caused by the PN government's badly-planned landfills.

Nevertheless, Dr Zammit Dimech's ministry does not learn from its past mistakes and describes Labour's intention to revise the engineered landfills proposal as "suicidal". Revision of Government's plans is essential if we want our landfills to conform to international standards, so that the residents close to the landfill will not be faced with more serious problems than just odours which wrecked the people of Marsascala.

Mr Pullicino Orlando makes another statement this time regarding NGOs: "Mr Mizzi took them (NGOs) to task for daring to question his party's environmental credibility. One wonders how a party which is so sensitive to even the mildest of criticisms in Opposition would act if elected to power."

Labour prefers to have its credibility rated by the electorate rather than just by NGOs, especially since some NGOs accuse each other of being one-man bands! However, the letter from Mr Julian Manduca, the co-ordinator of an NGO (The Sunday Times, June 16) shows that Labour is not alone in pointing out Dr Zammit Dimech's lack of environmental credibility.

Hopefully, NGOs will not feel intimidated by the PN from publicly rating Dr Zammit Dimech's lack of environmental credibility at the same level to which they have recently unfairly categorised that of the Labour Party.

Waste management is not the only environmental problem we have in this country. All types of pollution have reached alarming levels because those responsible for regulating activities which lead to more pollution are acting poorly. This situation is linked to the numerous ineffective authorities which are sprouting under the PN administration.

These authorities have failed the credibility check and can hardly be trusted with protecting the environment or the citizens of this country. Many have criticised MEPA, but the government has still not carried out investigations to see what is going wrong.

The Malta Resources Authority, a relatively new body created just to implement the EU acquis, also fails the most basic credibility test. Can this authority be credible when overnight, the persons responsible for the Water Services Corporation (Malta's main operator in the water sector) and oil exploration have become regulators of the same sectors?

Will these regulators incriminate themselves by taking action against operators who are polluting the environment, when they themselves were responsible for the operator's actions?

The environment needs authorities which rely on good planning and new approaches, because it is evident that the old approaches have failed.

However, nothing will improve under the PN government because it persists in filling the new authorities with its old cronies, who were responsible for leading Malta to the present environmental disaster. Labour is offering real change and new approaches to solve our environmental problems.

Mr Mizzi is Opposition spokesman for the environment