A truckload of fridges and other white goods has been filmed being dumped haphazardly onto an illegal temporary facility run by state agency Wasteserv.

The footage was filmed on Monday morning, according to Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi who shared it on Facebook on Tuesday. 

It comes less than a week after Wasteserve admitted it was illegally storing more than 500 tonnes of white goods at the site in Iklin in order to not miss out on EU funds. 

Dr Azzopardi called on Environment Minister Jose Herrera to take responsibility for the conduct of the agency responsible for Malta’s waste management.

He accused Wasteserv of flouting environmental regulations and threatening the health of people living near the temporary facility which forms part of the Bitmac batching plant.

The illegal use of the site was exposed by Dr Azzopardi when he revealed in Parliament that it was not covered with a development permit and that more than ten times the limit of electronic waste is dumped there.  

Wasteserv has justified its conduct on the grounds that it would have risked missing out on EU funds for a planned €22 million facility in Ħal Far.

Dr Azzopardi said that Wasteserv ended up in this situation as a consequence of the recruitment of “idiots who are being paid thousands, and who are putting people’s lives at risk”.

“Do you know what would happen if the gases contained in these hundreds of tonnes of appliances were to catch fire?” he asked.

The Times of Malta has approached Wasteserv for comment 

Last March, Times of Malta revealed that the government had awarded a €1 million direct order to Bitmac to use part of its plant for the storage of electronic waste from the overflowing civic amenity sites.    

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