Marsascala: Two wrongs don't make a right

It's no surprise Malta is lagging behind the rest of the EU countries in waste management, for it took the PN government eight long, wasteful years to come up with a revised waste strategy. To crown it all, in the process the public was and still is being misled.

The most shameful deception occurred when Mepa listed three alternative sites to be compared with that of Sant' Antnin in Marsascala. WasteServ the applicant declined to suggest an alternative site for it was dead set on Marsascala. In 2004, Għallis was then one of three sites chosen by Mepa to be compared in the selection process with a footprint of 2.2 hectares when the site needed to accommodate the new technology was for an area of 4.5 hectares. It was later revealed that the EIA study was rigged for the PDS erroneously stated 1.8 hectares to fit the new plant making Sant'Antnin the only possible site.

It seems that in 2009, Għallis area miraculously grew in size to accommodate a recycling plant costing €45 million, €15 million more than that of Sant'Antnin which covers an area of 47,500 square metres. Environment experts at the time of the selection process pinpointed Għallis as the most adequate site to build one recycling plant that would have catered for all the waste generated on the Maltese islands, thus the protected Sant'Antnin valley that houses the obnoxious industry would have been spared and restored to its natural state. Instead the PN administration during a recent press conference embarked on yet another U-turn without bothering to consult anyone by naming two more plants in Għallis and Xewkija, Gozo. The minister responsible may act indifferently or refuse to admit that he had to succumb to the continuous pressure by the committee against the Sant' Antnin recycling plant to reduce the plant's licence, capable of processing the entire waste of 200,000 tpa, to one-third that, at 71,000 tonnes of waste per annum. The €108 million incineration plant earmarked for Delimara to treat non-recyclables and toxic waste is the third phase of the waste management policy and regardless of the Environment Minister's denials it was also destined to Sant'Antnin site in Marsascala. When confronted with this dilemma by the committee, the authorities involved refused to comment.

Politicians are a breed of their own especially the ones decorated as the green politicians. I could not help but laugh and on the other hand agree with the comments bitterly expressed by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando over the planned extension of St John's Co-Cathedral Museum showing distrust in the operation of Mepa and more so his questioning of the credibility of the process, mainly the study of alternative sites, in the Environment Impact Assessment.

This same politician fought tooth and nail against the seven local councils and their residents over the whole Sant'Antnin flawed process. Needless to say we all know the outcome of the Mepa Auditor's report regarding the farcical alternative site selection exercise as being one of the most vitiated, manipulated processes in Mepa's history.