Landfills: is there an ideal site?

The decision to build a massive landfill near Maghtab is wrong. It is wrong because:

¤ Malta is so small;

¤ we will have to create so much more waste to create this gaping hole;

¤ this island depends massively on tourism; and

¤ it is on the border of a location that actually hosts our largest single group of tourists.

The decision was made after much consultation but it is still the wrong one. Sadly, some of the green but uninformed pressure groups that participate in this country's environmental debates have refused to look at other waste management systems or incineration as we understand it.

In fact they have done far worse than this. They have managed to dirty the reputation of all forms of incineration, when this is totally wrong (and they know it).

Somehow the uninformed Maltese public (and thank God they are for certain members of our political classes; otherwise how would certain politicians have made such a glaring mistake over the years?) put pressure on our previous politicians to not consider alternative waste management systems (or incineration as we know it).

And the problem is compounded by the fact that we hate dirty chimneys, and rightly so. Ask anyone who lives or has lived as I did within striking distance of St Luke's, and had to clean up the terrible soot or people in Marsa, Tarxien and its environs, who have had to deal with so much more of this problem.

Today, clean incineration exists and we should not be stupid enough to rule it out because a few loud environmentalists have made themselves a career out of scaring us off even thinking about it.

Just think about air quality. Think about your kids or your grandchildren or yourself, if you suffer from any breathing problems or asthma.

If you just consider air quality, where would you rather live, Switzerland or Malta? Few would answer Malta. The air in Switzerland, even in their cities, is far better than the air in Sliema or Marsa, in Gzira, Qormi or Birkirkara, to mention a few of the many localities where I have sometimes been unable to see clearly, such are the clouds of fuel smoke, dust and what-have-you that pollute our roads and all our homes.

In Switzerland, yes clean Switzerland, the same country Alfred Sant's Labour wanted to emulate, they use incineration very widely. Of course, it is not Malta-style incineration, it is clean and it can also be used, or re-used, to generate power again. It is clean and doubly efficient.

It is impossible to make this decision about the site near Maghtab and the other bad decision about locating a temporary one near our prehistoric temples and not expect a riot. Even though this mistaken decision was released in the hot summer months, and hence, hopefully, when most of us are in holiday mode, asleep or away, there has been an outcry - and justifiably so.

But we must not blame anyone. We just have to take a better decision or we will regret it, our children even more and our grandchildren, God help them.

The PM, who rarely loses his grip and his finger on the pulse of this small, dirty nation, rightly intervened to express his view.

The PM has intervened to show his government's honourable intentions and he is right. Nobody who made these proposals or took these last sudden decisions had bad intentions.

But it is still a bad decision. We may need a smaller landfill and this has to be located somewhere where it causes less harm.

Is it true there is an ideal site but Enemalta spotted it first and are refusing that it should be considered?

We have to incinerate some of our waste. Not to do so would create an island with 3,000 tumoli of landfill in only 100 years. I only have one young child, so that is well within the lifespan of my grandchildren. If it is true that the landfill at Ghallis will take up 600 tumoli and will only be good for 20 years we have to dig five of these monsters in 100 years.

Which is simply madness. If we were the size and population of Sicily, we could consider it but we aren't and we can't.

Who really believes that a world that can achieve so much can only think of a big hole to hide waste. This is the 21st century. Why are we closing our eyes and our ears to the fact that we can incinerate?

Why are we planning to create a 600 tumolo hole? Why do we want to locate it near our biggest money earner, tourism? Why can't we take one good lesson from the Swiss?

And have the EU told us we can't consider good incineration? I doubt it. Have the EU told us to build temporary landfills? I doubt it, but what a horrible thought.

We can't be serious about their location on the border of our best two prehistoric temples?

I for one do not believe we can't find a better location for a smaller landfill which will cause less ruin and destruction, preferably where a very large hole already exists. And many others surely agree.

I will not accept the idea of temporary landfills on the border of our best prehistoric sites.

I want Government to help us reduce waste and see if we can have as small a landfill as possible by incinerating most waste cleanly.

Building waste can clearly be re-used in other ways.

This is not the time for political gain or to point fingers. The minister has taken the wrong decision because he has not been given the right information. The solutions proposed so far are unacceptable, and a better decision can be taken.

So far, I seem to be the only one who believes a government that has done so much good will stop, re-consider and take a better decision.

I believe our PM will do this, in one way or another, for his children and for his grandchildren.

And I am more of a realist than an optimist...

It may well be a u-turn but it will still be one of the best decisions of his legislature.

The stakes are too high for us not to reconsider...