MLP asked to express intentions on landfill

Resources and Infrastructure Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said the investment of between Lm100-Lm150 million needed for the protection of the environment including waste management, drainage water purification and water production, would have to be made irrespective of whether or not Malta joined the European Union.

The recurrent expenditure in this sector was between Lm16-Lm19 million, he said.

The only difference was that if Malta joined the EU it would qualify for environmental funds that would reach up to 60 per cent of the capital investment made.

If Malta did not join, the investment would have to be done just the same but the money would have to be raised through taxation.

Dr Zammit Dimech said the commitment to close the Maghtab dump by the year 2004 depended on other initiatives, including the modernisation of the Sant`Antnin waste recycling plant and that waste from the construction industry - which amounts to 80 per cent of all waste - would no longer be mixed with other waste.

Other initiatives were to provide a waste depot in Gozo to collect domestic waste so that it would be loaded on trucks and sealed to be brought to Malta and to provide an engineered landfill for waste which cannot be turned into compost. Dr Zammit Dimech said this kind of waste was just a fraction of all the waste which was dumped at Maghtab.

The minister said the landfill would be constructed in such a way that gas emissions and liquids would not cause pollution.

The zone to be used for the landfill would not be larger than half the size of a football ground and it would be covered, he said.

Dr Zammit Dimech challenged Labour speakers who were claiming that they also wanted the Maghtab dump to be closed by 2004, to say whether they agreed with the construction of the landfill and, in case they agreed, say where they intended to construct it.