The work being done at the Marsa incinerator will get rid of the unbearable stench that is making people sick, Enviroment Minister Aaron Farrugia promised on Friday.
“Improvements have already been registered and the issue will be solved,” Farrugia said, after Times of Malta on Thursday reported that the smell from exposed animal carcasses was making workers in the area vomit and a business’s foreign clients had to leave the nearby boating facility.
A spokesperson for the environment ministry on Friday said it had already made a commitment to close down the old incinerator. The tender for design works had been adjudicated and works were under way.
WasteServ chief executive Richard Bilocca said an enclosure would be built over the yard where animal carcasses are kept temporarily upon arrival at the incinerator before being transferred to refrigerated containers. This would happen by the end of the year.
Next February, he added, Wasteserv would take delivery of state-of-the-art equipment to get rid of the stench within the airtight enclosure.
Bilocca too was reacting to the Times report about the pungent odours that are affecting nearby businesses and neighbouring localities.
Uncovered skips containing animal carcasses could be seen at the site, including what looked like skinned rabbits covered in flies. Dried blood covered the ground around a skip. A cow lay inside one of them, uncovered, while at least two dead horses were spotted in similar skips on Wednesday.
An adviser to MMH Holdings Ltd, operators of the Mediterranean Maritime Hub, said the stench was damaging businesses and affecting their employees. Paul Abela said one of the company’s main offshore clients had received instructions from abroad to leave the facility after employees complained the foul smells made it difficult for them to breathe.
The company has been fighting a battle over the stench for years but despite meetings and court action, nothing has changed, Abela said.
Built in 2007, the incinerator handles the island’s abattoir and clinical waste, as well as refuse-derived fuel and other waste such as industrial sludge. An autoclave – a pressure chamber capable of extracting animal fat from carcasses – was added in 2016.
Bilocca admitted that there was a problem with the Marsa plant and this was why the agency was investing €4 million to make the necessary changes.
“I cannot hide the fact that there are problems at this plant but we are addressing them and there is our full commitment to address them,” he told Times of Malta yesterday.
“The incinerator is old and we have to make do with what we have until we move to the new plant in Magħtab in five years’ time. The incinerator goes into regular maintenance every four weeks, where it stops being used for around two weeks. In the meantime, we are investing substantial amounts to continue improving the plant,” he added.
He insisted that unlike the impression given by the article, animal carcasses were not left to rot in the sun but placed in the yard temporarily until workers transferred them to refrigerated containers where they were kept at -5ºC. This was the case with the rabbit skins photographed by Times of Malta, he said.
The structure to enclose the yard was being fabricated in Ħal Far and would be in place by the end of the year. By February, Wasteserv would take delivery of state-of-the-art equipment that would completely kill any smells emanating from the plant, he added.
“Even our workers inside will not be exposed to these smells once the machinery is in operation.”
He said Wasteserv was also working to improve the quality of the carcasses brought to the plant.
“Sometimes, we receive cows that have been dead for a week and have started to decompose. In those cases, we would have to incinerate immediately and the cost to the producer is 10 times the normal price, so that is a deterrent and it’s working,” he said.
The matter was last brought up in parliament by Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi in 2019 when workers had to be hospitalised due to fainting and vomiting.