Labour's environment policy

The Labour Party's document on the environment presents the basic principles which will underlie the environmental policies of a Labour government.

From a political point of view, it is significant that the PN has not produced a similar document on the environment although it has been in government for over a decade, except for the Waste Management Plan, although this was imposed by the EU.

Labour's environment document shows our strong and unparallelled commitment to the environment which we intend to implement by overhauling Malta's ineffective environmental institutions in order to ensure that we have the same sustainable environmental policies.

Dr Francis Zammit Dimech misunderstands Labour's environment document because he is caught in a time warp, where environmental issues were given low priority. His article titled "Much ado about nothing" (The Sunday Times, August 4) tries to give the impression that Labour's document is vague, offers nothing new and has no precise plans of action.

His article title, which equates the environment to "nothing", betrays the PN's lethargy and disinterest in local environmental problems.

Labour's document makes it clear that the Department for the Environment will be re-established. We were against the merger between this department and the former Planning Authority. A number of NGOs also disapprove of this merger. This merger only served to create new posts for more blue-eyed boys. Suffice it to say that the new director for the environment at MEPA is an ex-PN electoral candidate!

The structure of MEPA will have to change and be transformed into a new "authority" (inverted commas imply that a new name will have to be found) which will be mainly responsible for land use planning and environmental impact assessment.

In both these concerns, the PA (now MEPA) has failed over the past years because it followed wrong policies and has acted in defiance of standard procedures.

Recently, the chairman of MEPA made a public statement in which he declared that Malta has an "oversupply of land for construction". This statement is incredible considering the small size of this country.

It is clearly evident that MEPA's policies on land use, not least its local plans, are based on unsustainable and wrong policies and therefore need to be revised.

Dr Zammit Dimech is shocked by such a suggestion, but seems immune to the justified protests against the development of Kalkara Valley, as proposed in one local plan which he defends.

We have to see who is behind these so-called local plans: are there land speculators who determine what and where should be built (Kalkara is a case in point)? Or are there professionals who have a vested interest in seeing more construction on virgin land? (significantly, these professionals have a strong presence at MEPA).

Labour will not beat about the bush about these fundamental structural problems which are destroying our environment. Our environment document is also full of new proposals which will bring a leap in quality in Malta's environment.

The document proposes the setting up of a Geological Survey (Malta remains the only country in Europe without this institution). This will assist in reforming the local quarry industry.

Like its counterparts in the rest of the world, the Geological Survey will implement scientific solutions to problems related to the non-living environment, such as coastal erosion, flooding, ground instability and contaminated land. However, Dr Zammit Dimech claims that Labour's document offers nothing new!

Sea reclamation is also implied in the document. Small countries all over the world have used sea reclamation to extend their territory. We also intend to combine this initiative with waste management. Nothing new?

Noise and air pollution levels have to be controlled and a Labour government wants to create a system of monitoring and control of these problems. Dr Zammit Dimech is emphatic that "scrubbers and electronic (sic!) precipitators" are already installed in power stations, but Labour's document points out how many of these are actually working or working effectively!

The environment document also proposes new parks, where Malta's ecological and geological heritage will be preserved for future generations.

The Labour environment document also discusses the energy problem. The PN government's total reliance on oil as a source of energy shows its lack of commitment to sustainable development. The environment document seeks the development of renewable sources of energy.

It is incredible that Malta has remained indifferent to solar and wind energy when neighbouring countries are making strides in this regard.

Dr Zammit Dimech calls Labour's environment document vague because it does not specify the location of new landfills. If this is the yardstick for assessing such documents, then his ministry's own Waste Management Strategy imposed on us by the EU must also be a very vague document, since it nowhere proposes a location for new landfills.

Indeed, the government is still undecided about the location of the proposed engineered landfills despite the considerable taxpayer's money wasted on reports. Yet, Dr Zammit Dimech expects Labour to come up with a location while he continues with his prodigal spending on reports that ignore the principles of landfill location.

When it comes to public health, Dr Zammit Dimech suddenly changes his attitude. He becomes frugal and favours centralisation of composting facilities for reasons of "economies of scale".

He questions Labour's wisdom of having regional composting plants. Meanwhile, he defends his lunatic proposal to ship Gozo's municipal waste to Malta!

This shows that the PN knows nothing about the problems of composting. The Labour document on the environment emphasises the development of regional composting plants so as to avoid contamination from mainly industrial wastes.

The high level of contamination in compost is such a problem that Germany is beginning to rethink its entire composting policy. But for Dr Zammit Dimech, the Labour document is all rhetoric!

Waste separation will be the cornerstone of Labour's waste management policy. Dr Zammit Dimech took a long time to realise the importance of waste separation, so he did nothing about it for the past decade. Now, realising his grave mistake, he intends to impress us with limited cosmetic initiatives.

During a recent press conference, he referred to the advanced stage in the implementation of the 56 initiatives in Progett Skart. In reality, many of these 56 initiatives consist of the setting up of more authorities, committees and other opportunities for more jobs for the boys!

I ask the citizen and man in the street, have you seen any improvement in the waste management situation? Has there been any improvement, even temporary, at Maghtab? The answers will be all in the negative.

The Labour Party's document on the environment was not imposed by Brussels, as happened in the case of Dr Zammit Dimech's waste management plan. Labour's document is a refreshing initiative based on the contribution of local experts who listen to grassroot levels.

It shows that there is a lot that need to be done about the environment and provides a credible alternative to the present "comedy of errors" which characterises the PN government's environmental policies (if a coherent set of policies exist at all).

The people of this country are unimpressed by Dr Zammit Dimech's whitewashing of our grave environmental problems about which he did nothing for most of the time.

Malta desperately needs to implement Labour's environment document and the ambitious aims it proposes because the social and economic cost of doing nothing (a trait in which the PN excels) will be far higher than the economic cost of implementing this document.

Mr Mizzi, MP, is MLP spokesman on the environment