Environment Minister José Herrera has requested an urgent meeting with the St Paul’s Bay local council to discuss the town’s rising tide of litter.   

Minister Herrera wants to meet the town's council. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

In a tweet, Dr Herrera said “serious action has to be taken on the littering problem… this has to stop!” 

The meeting is expected to be held this week. 

His statement came just a few hours after Times of Malta published residents’ complaints of littered streets in the St Paul’s Bay-Qawra area. 

Garbage bags and cardboard boxes of all sizes brimming with waste have been piling up in street corners and all sorts of litter, including glass and plastic bottles and cans, are being strewn along pavements. 

Bulky waste, like old sofas and other pieces of furniture, were also being dumped on the streets, while open areas had been turned into makeshift scrap yards.  

“Is this how we are expected to live?” a resident of Triq it-Tamar, Qawra, had said.

“The area has gone into disarray after the elections and it is no longer safe for me to take out my one-year-old daughter... there are rats the size of cats around,” another resident noted. 

Council trying to tackle the problem for months

Yet another resident sent in a video of the doorstep dumping that surrounded her as she strolled through Triq it-Turisti, Triq l-Imsell, Triq Mazzola and Triq Halel, all residential neighbourhoods. 

When contacted, outgoing mayor Anne Fenech said she was fully aware of the appalling situation and that the council had been trying to tackle the problem for months.

“We’re doing our best but some of the residents here are not cooperating,” Ms Fenech told the paper. 

“Some people still take out their garbage at night while others do so after the rubbish has been collected.”

The local council urged residents to make an effort to comply with the recycling scheme and called for more effective enforcement. 

Meanwhile, the council is in talks to have the rubbish collected more often.