Plans are afoot to relocate the tank cleaning farm in Rinella to an offshore facility, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Thursday. 

The tank cleaning farm has long generated complaints from Cottonera residents because of the pollution it causes. 

Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield, who heads the Cottonera regeneration committee, told Parliament in October that the “nauseating smell” coming from the facility was causing an inconvenience to residents and visitors to Rinella bay. 

The facility is used mainly by tankers to have their tanks cleaned of waste oil and dangerous gas before proceeding to the dockyard.

Dr Muscat said that the cleaning facilities are vital for ship operators in Malta.

He claimed the Nationalist government had planned to relocate the facility to ODZ land in Birżebbuġa, which would have merely shifted the problem onto other residents in the south. 

Dr Muscat made his comments during a press conference on the regeneration of Cottonera.  

In 2017, the tank facility's operators were caught dumping a black liquid into the sea. 

A 30-year concession was given to the company operating the plant in January 2013. 

At the time, Labour had hit out at the then PN government for privatising the facility without first discussing it in Parliament. 

Dr Muscat said on Thursday that the government was committed to investing in Cottonera and its people. 

He said the key to the area’s regeneration was having the community on board. 

Dr Muscat said the regeneration was aimed at benefiting the whole community and was not simply a gentrification process. 

He acknowledged the tensions that new investments in the area could generate. 

Just last month, a group of Cottonera residents took to the streets to protest plans by the American University of Malta to take up more land in the area.