A backfilled illegal quarry in Rabat, which has grown into a towering rubble mountain, remains several storeys high despite last summer’s assurances that it would be reduced.

The quarry in the Lunzjata area borders several farms including one belonging to 63-year-old Angelo Giordmaina. 

In August, Giordmaina said he feared that falling boulders or a landslide could cause serious injury and damage his property. Back then, the authorities pledged that the rubble mountain will begin to shrink following fresh enforcement action.

“The Planning Authority took the initiative so that no new material is allowed on the site,” a spokesperson for the Environment and Resources Authority told Times of Malta in September, pledging that stockpiles will be reduced.

Times of Malta returned to the site recently to find the backfilled quarry still towering the farmer’s field. Giordmaina said that work in the quarry remained ongoing, to the extent that the rubble got higher.

“Trucks are constantly coming in and out and I don’t want to imagine how dusty it will get once summer comes. I think the quarry is now even higher than Magħtab,” Giordmaina said, referring to the waste area in Naxxar.

The quarry operation is subject to a number of Planning Authority enforcement notices and an ERA stop works order.

Replying to questions, a spokesperson for the Planning Authority said it has followed through with its commitments and regular inspections were carried out in the past months.

“On these instances, the PA did not witness the deposition of fresh material but the infilling of parts of the licensed quarry with material which is illegally deposited/stored outside the quarry boundaries.”

The quarry is subject to three active Planning Authority enforcement notices, with the oldest contravention dating back to 2005. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

'Whoever comes for it, I'm giving it away'

Parts of the quarry has also been lowered, they said, adding that “operational aspects of the activity on site are regulated by ERA”.

Contacted for comment, quarry owner Paul Falzon, of Tlata Ltd, said he is breaking large rocks and turning them into fine debris.

“Whoever comes for it, I am giving it away,” he said. Falzon said the long-term plans are to level the area and build a solar farm.

The Planning Authority confirmed a pending application (PA/06993/24) for the site “for the rehabilitation of existing quarry and after use as a solar farm at ground floor level, including nine greenhouses, and to include sanctioning and restoration of any over site excavation”.

The application is at screening stage, the PA said.

Momentum Party chairperson Arnold Cassola requested that the ombudsman’s office investigate the authorities’ inaction over the illegal backfilling for the last 15 years.

Following an investigation, the ombudsman’s office found that the PA did what it could by issuing enforcement notices and taking “direct action”, according to correspondence sent to Momentum. 

The ombudsman’s office did not say what the direct action entailed.

“The authority also imposed a fine up to the maximum limit established by law,” he said.