Magħtab farmers have claimed that they were being bullied into accepting the government’s plans to expropriate their farmland but the environment minister said it was not a matter of bullying but presenting a reality.

“It’s not bullying. That is the reality. We do not have space in the landfill beyond March so we need a solution. If we do not expropriate land to build the four plants we are proposing, then we would have no option but to take up much more land to extend the landfill which is the option we discarded after we met the Magħtab farmers,” Aaron Farrugia told Times of Malta when contacted on Wednesday.

He was reacting to claims made by the farmers who stand to lose agricultural land to make way for a massive waste management project in the area and who insisted Farrugia was “threatening” them with taking up more land if they continued to oppose the proposed project.

Last week, the farmers wrote to the government with alternative sites for the project but these were all shot down as the sites they proposed featured garigue, which is protected under EU law, as well as a number of old endemic trees and carob trees, which are also protected. A fourth alternative site was on the Żwejra landfill and therefore not suitable for heavy plant development.

The state waste agency Wasteserv has submitted an application for an outline development permit to build a waste-to-energy plant in Magħtab, which is expected to cost up to €190 million to build and a further €200 million to operate over two decades.

The government had originally wanted to expropriate 279,000 square metres but following discussions reduced it to 82,000 after shelving its plan to turn 150,000sq metres of land in an extended landfill.

Charlie Sciberras, one of the farmers, said Wasteserv’s plans would ruin the livelihood of 25 farmers and destroy the area.

“We proposed alternative sites and we will continue insisting these are suitable. We’ve had enough taken from us over the decades. We agree with the government’s project but we need to be allowed to work our fields. We have families too you know,” he said.

But Farrugia said that this was the country’s reality. “The landfill is not large enough and we are taking up a site previously earmarked for hazardous waste as a stop-gap measure. It’s not that I don’t want to accommodate but the sites we chose are the best options.”