Residents and business owners in Triq L-Irvellijiet, Paola, are having to resort to staying indoors due to a “sickening” smell that wafts over their street.
They say the problem has persisted for years and recently started to get worse. Business owners even say they got complaints from clients who said they would soon stop turning up if the situation did not improve.
One business owner said the foul smell was like that of a rotting animal carcass.
“Sometimes it’s so bad that we have to shut the doors, otherwise it’s as though we can almost taste it in our mouths… it’s that bad. Sometimes we can’t even stomach eating our lunch,” one business owner told Times of Malta during an onsite visit that confirmed the claims.
A resident who lives in the area said the smell was becoming so unbearable that he simply stopped opening any windows to let in fresh air.
“I can smell it while indoors with the windows shut; can you imagine what it would be like if I left them open? I cannot even sit on my sofa in peace without smelling the disgusting stench,” he said. Another business owner described how some of his employees were suffering from headaches which he feared were a result of the unbearable odours.
When residents and business owners tried to find the cause of the smell, people in the area pointed to the nearby public abattoir or possibly the Wasteserv plant. A spokeswoman for the Paola council immediately confirmed complaints about the smells, saying there had been reports for years about this.
Regarding where the smell was coming from, the spokeswoman said it was from the public abattoir nearby and said the council had already reported the matter to the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA).
“The ERA knows about this because we have passed on the complaints on several occasions,” she said.
An ERA spokesman said the authority was aware of the situation and was "investigating the matter accordingly".
The public abattoir’s chief officer, Emanuel Schembri denied this claim.
“I can assure you that there is no such smell coming out of the public abattoir. We dispatch fresh meat every day – Monday to Friday – and our cleaning process is strictly according to existing regulations, both local and EU,” Mr Schembri said.
He went on to point out that “in the vicinity there are other establishments that can contribute to certain smells”.
He did not name the establishments he believed could be behind the smell.
Last October, MMH Holdings Limited, operators of the Mediterranean Maritime Hub of Marsa, filed a judicial protest against Wasteserv Malta and the public abattoir over the “disgusting, sickening and unbearable smell” it said its employees have had to endure for several weeks.
The company alleged that its employees and sometimes even those of subcontractors had felt physically ill as a result of the stench.
The abattoir and the Attorney General filed a reply in court denying responsibility but Wasteserv Malta never did and neither did it reply to questions sent by Times of Malta.