Achievements in the environmental sector

The government's promises regarding land-use planning and environmental protection have been achieved and are still being achieved.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), which has succeeded the then Planning Authority, has had its bureaucracy clipped, resulting in the lowest number of pending applications achieved since the setting up of the authority 10 years ago.

The most consistent and intensive enforcement programme has taken place, with more than 350 illegal structures and 24 scrapyards removed. Thousands of tons of building material have been removed from the countryside. Various policies have been amended so that minor developments, such as those relating to small industrial and commercial enterprises, do not need a full development permit application. Seventeen sites have been identified in Malta and Gozo where small industries can develop their activities.

Fiscal incentives have been introduced for the use of alternative energy devices and vehicles. An air monitoring programme is being implemented and this year's expenditure on such a programme is half a million liri, the highest ever. Public participation in the planning process has been increased drastically.

Everybody has access to environmental and planning information without any hindrances. From the comfort of one's home, one can download maps and information on development applications. Conservation orders on various properties have been issued, such as Villa Alhambra in Sliema. An ecoschools programme has been initiated whereby schools will carry out environmental management projects. Incentives have been devised to rehabilitate properties in Valletta, Floriana and Cottonera, where the vacant property problem is felt most.

What will be achieved? Targets are set so that various environmental projects will be undertaken, such as the construction of sewage treatment plants, the closure of the Maghtab and Qortin landfills, the power stations reaching EU standards and the reduction of nitrates and fluoride in drinking water. The EU will provide Lm81 million up to 2006 in order to attain various projects, including environmental and road building projects.

What did Labour do for the environment in its two years in government? It reduced public access to information with respect to development applications, by making it mandatory for one to be accompanied by an architect in order to see a plan of a development proposal next to one's home. The minister responsible for public works did not give permission to the Works Department to allow the department's machinery to be used for the demolition of illegal structures that would have been carried out by the then Planning Authority. No machinery. No demolition.

Labour's vision for the future? They have invited submissions for development proposals to be submitted to the party so that they start to be processed. If need be, they have declared that such proposals will also be approved by a special law in parliament.

I have challenged the Labour leader to make public the submissions that his party has received, including the sites of the proposals and the project proponents. The challenge was not taken up by Alfred Sant. For Labour there are two kinds of applications, those that are submitted at the offices of the party, and all the rest. No wonder that Dr Sant is now proposing that MEPA should be divided into four departments falling under the responsibility of a minister. The massacre to the environment that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s was due to government departments falling under a minister who decided overnight which land could be built.

Dr Sant called his party's 'partnership' proposal on the environment as a notebook. In this avant-garde, as Labour wishes us to believe, programme for the improvement of the environment in Malta, Labour are proposing that vehicle restriction in Valletta, introduced in the 1970s, will remain. How original! How come this thought did not occur to anyone in these last years?

Dr Sant is bending backwards trying to convince people that the slogan L-Ewwel Int is not egoistic because it does not state L-Ewwel Jien. The topsy-turvy 'logic' of the interpretation of the referendum result is too fresh in people's minds for them to forget. In this electoral campaign we will surely hear more statements by Dr Sant saying one thing and in reality meaning L-Ewwel Jien.

George Pullicino is parliamentary secretary responsible for planning and the environment.