Six non-governmental environment organisations have expressed concern that in spite of the official message being given that the countryside was being protected, many areas in Malta and Gozo were coming under attack.
The NGOs Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth, Gaia Foundation, Greenhouse, NatureTrust and Ramblers Association said that illegal dumping has been taking place at Ta' Muxi, near Qala in Gozo affecting an area of nearly 70,000m² (see link below).
Most of this dumping was in an area of great geological interest and scenic beauty, proposed as a geological park The ongoing removal of topsoil to cover illegal dumping of construction waste on virgin land has been ignored in spite of reports.
If construction waste was used as infill on a building project, MEPA immediately clamped down.
But at Ta' Muxi, construction waste has been dumped illegally and systematically with no action taken against the perpetrators. Furthermore, the quarry operators have been using an illegal road to dump abusively for years.
While the NGOs said they supported the steep increase on tax for rubble waste in line with the polluter pays principle, this needed to be accompanied by enforcement, as many were dumping in the countryside to avoid tax. They asked where the Green Wardens’ priorities lay as they only seemed interested in fining litterers, while ignoring heavy dumping in the countryside.
The NGOs accused the Ta’ Muxi quarry owners of violating several of their permit conditions, including failure to use the alternative route as stipulated in the permit and not preventing dumping by unauthorised persons.
The quarry also failed to pay the sum of Lm20,00 due annually since 1998 to Qala Council to cover road and water pipe damages as a result of the quarrying.
They said that, until recently, top Mepa authorities were insisting that the quarry owners were acting within their permit. But some three weeks ago Mepa backtracked and admitted that violations of permit conditions had taken place
Ta’ Muxi quarry was now applying for the renewal of its permit.
According to Legal Notice 337, when processing or renewing a permit, Mepa had to consider the impact of the proposed activity on the environment and to assess the applicants’ suitability based on their track record of legality.
The NGOs said that Wied Għajn Zejtuna in Mellieha, MEPA’s upgrading of the scheduling of the watercourse had massively reduced the size of the protected area, allowing development to encroach closer to the watercourse, endangering the fresh-water crab and aggravating flooding.
At Bengħisa a vast area of fields, protected carobs and dry stone walls was earmarked to create warehousing for the Freeport in spite of the existence of such facilities at nearby Hal Far.
At Zebbug, developers abusively uprooted trees without the necessary permits.
These examples of environmental neglect and mismanagement all over Malta and Gozo, culminating in the Dwejra debacle, showed that MEPA lacked the will to prevent the encroachment of the countryside and the further destruction of the country’s natural beauty.
As such MEPA officials responsible for this state of affairs should be held accountable and step down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSuJRlorrxg