Dumping Maghtab

The Maghtab dump could not be closed before infrastructure was created to dispose of waste, Resources and Infrastructure Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said yesterday.

He was replying to comments by Labour leader Alfred Sant, who said that under a Labour government the Maghtab and Qortin dumps would be closed in 21 months. Dr Zammit Dimech said the government had drawn up plans to ensure that building industry waste, now dumped at Maghtab, would be disposed of in another way.

The project, known as Package J, would be the first stage in government's strategy to manage waste. Eighty-five per cent of local waste comes from the building industry.

The government's plans also included an enlarged composting plant at Sant'Antnin and the introduction of an engineered landfill to take waste that cannot be recycled, he said, reiterating that the Maghtab dump would be closed by the end of 2004.

This was a year earlier than under Labour's plan.

Dr Zammit Dimech said that scientific profiling of the dumps would soon be completed.