Malta’s environmental watchdog needs to act beyond the “emotional trigger” of lost trees and be guided by “data-driven hard facts”, its chairman, Victor Axiak has declared.
Writing in the Environment Resource Authority’s (ERA) annual report, he describes the country as a miniscule place which has been “rendered almost bare of anything which is green” ever since the island was first colonised.
“In a place which has been shedding its natural beauty to replace it with concrete and tarmac, it is evident that the loss of a tree gains in emotional significance,” Axiak continues.
The ERA chairman says in the foreword to the report that “hard facts” rather than emotions should drive the environmental watchdog to deliver long-term goals of sustainability in a holistic manner.
Doing this is not easy, he continues, as it often requires a certain level of moral fibre and confidence which the authority expects of its employees.
Axiak assures in the report that ERA is doing its utmost, within its legal and operational constraints, to facilitate the required transition to a more sustainable economy and society.
ERA is often criticised as being ineffective, particularly against the hard-charging Infrastructure Malta agency that has been behind the uprooting of countless trees and take-up of virgin land.
A miniscule place which has been ‘rendered almost bare of anything which is green’
The chairman acknowledges in the annual report that the “narrative” when it comes to ERA is not always positive.
There were instances, he argues, when responsibilities were attributed to ERA which did not actually fall under its remit.
He lamented how ERA’s achievements often did not gain sufficient recognition and he hopes to show how, “beyond the media din”, the authority is organising itself to deliver on what is expected of it.
Giving an overview of a “list that is long and growing”, Axiak said ERA is working on a 30-year national strategy for the environment as well as other strategies for improved management of biodiversity and better management of waste, including that generated from construction and demolition.
The annual report shows that the number of administrative penalties for environmental offences increased from 291 in 2019 to 551 in 2020.
In all, 344 penalties were issued for waste related offences.
This figures includes 156 for waste deposited outside the receptacles of bring-in sites, 128 for taking out black bags on days when organic or recyclable waste were scheduled for collection and 60 for taking out waste several hours prior to scheduled collection.
ERA’s waste dumping and litter team investigated 325 cases related to illegal dumping of waste and unauthorised waste movements.
On-site inspections and meetings by the compliance and enforcement officers led to a considerable number of cases being concluded in which the responsible parties complied with ERA requirements without the directorate reverting to formal enforcement action.
A total of 712 inspections related to illegal waste dumping or incineration were carried out by this team.