MEPs want answers on Lija dust problem

The European Parliament's Petitions Committee yesterday gave the European Commission two weeks to come up with a detailed progress report on a case raised by a Lija resident on excessive construction dust emissions in his town.

In a petition originally filed in 2006, Michael Zammit claimed that air quality in Lija suffered from dust emissions from the Blokrete construction plant in the area. The Commission had already admitted that air quality in the Lija neighbourhood was in excess of EU limits.

However, a Commission representative present at a committee meeting yesterday said the Maltese authorities had not provided details on this specific case. He said that following a revision of the European ambient air quality law last year, Malta had sought more time to comply with EU standards. The Commission is considering the request.

At the end of this January, infringement proceedings were filed against 10 EU countries on air quality legislation but Malta was not among them because its request for additional time was being considered.

Intervening during the meeting, Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil said he had visited the plant and, although some improvement had been made, it was clearly not enough. He recalled that the national authorities had to come up with a list of mandatory measures and a timeframe within which such measures would be implemented.

Dr Busuttil said that since the complaint was filed in 2006 he had received several other protests from residents of other localities, such as Naxxar, San Pawl tat-Tarġa and Siġġiewi. Some of the complaints would soon find their way to the Petitions Committee, he added.

Dr Busuttil said the petition should be kept open until more improvements were made.

The request was agreed upon and the petition was kept open. The Commission was asked to report back in writing on the matter within two weeks.