The head of cleansing has expressed alarm at the rise of illegal dumping in secluded, rural areas.

“We are receiving daily reports of large amounts of illegally dumped construction waste, tyres and car plastics in quiet, rural areas, some of which are frequently visited tourist pathways,” Ramon Deguara, director general of the government’s cleansing and maintenance division, told Times of Malta.

“It is concerning because the problem seems to be cultural. Despite all the services we offer, some people still lack a basic sense of civic duty,” he said.

While the government was well-equipped to handle these occurrences, it was costing “a lot of money and resources” to do so, he added.

We cannot install CCTV cameras everywhere, because they will always find another place where there is no surveillance- Ramon Deguara, director of cleansing division

On Wednesday morning, Deguara took to Facebook to complain of a “shameful” lack of civic duty after the directorate was called to clean up a site in Girgenti which contained large amounts of illegally dumped waste.

Illegally dumped car bumpers and construction waste at San Blas Hill, in Siġġiewi, earlier this week.

Speaking to Times of Malta later, he said that between Monday and Wednesday, the cleansing division had been called to clean up at least two other sites – another one in Siġġiewi and one in Attard – where illegal dumping had just occurred.

Deguara said the phenomenon was not as bad as it used to be until a few decades ago, when valleys would be filled with ditched, half-broken furniture and appliances.

Increase in tyres, bumpers, construction waste

“We’re noticing much fewer fridges, cookers and water heaters nowadays, although mattresses are still quite common,” he said.

“But we’re mostly concerned about an increase in tyres, car bumpers and construction waste.”

Deguara believes white goods are no longer dumped illegally because it has become easy and free to discard them in civic amenity sites, whereas car parts may only be discarded in a few, specific locations. And construction waste must be discarded against a fee.

“But it is not as simple as making it free of charge. Construction waste is discarded in private quarries, and we pay to throw it away,” he said.

“The government does not throw away materials for free. We pay private companies to discard our waste. We even pay Wasteserv when we use their services.

Illegally dumped waste in Attard.

“So, cleaning up illegal dumping sites is costing money and human resources, because we cannot simply collect it and dump it somewhere else. We must separate it.”

Deguara said enforcement was challenging and hardly effective, because people who intended to break the law were clearly and deliberately driving out of their way to secluded areas, where they were sure nobody could see them throwing away their rubbish.

“We cannot install CCTV cameras everywhere, because they will always find another place where there is no surveillance, and it is impossible to guard all of the country’s secluded areas,” he said.

“It has to come from a personal sense of civic duty.”

He insisted the directorate generally employs a same-day cleaning policy, and every site is cleaned within a maximum of 48 hours from when the report is submitted.