A raw (sewage) deal for Xghajra

Your editorial of July 18 speaks of various kinds of pollution and gives the impression that pollution concerns only those who occasionally come to know of it or observe it from a distance.

For years I have been writing in the newspapers regarding the government's disregard of Xghajra, where sewage pollution is a salient feature of this area stretching some 2.5 km along Malta's south-easterly coast between Fort Ricasoli (Kalkara) and Zonqor Point (Marsascala).

My writings then can easily be reproduced today as hardly anything has been done except meetings, promises supposedly with a 2007 target and a number of ministerial announcements which by and large have left our locality in the same state of limbo but with dire consequences.

A repeat of my writings may perhaps make those in government realise that their complete neglect of this grave matter is shameful, to say the least.

In 1997 the Labour government decided to discontinue the discharge of raw and semi-raw sewage into our coastal waters.

The Wied Ghammieq sewage outflow plant, just a few metres from Xghajra, caters for about 80 per cent of Malta's total sewage discharge. This means that some 20 million cubic metres a year of raw sewage, animal waste and industrial/chemical waste down our drains find their way to Wied Ghammieq and are supposedly pumped out a few metres off the coast.

However, due to prevailing winds and also intermittent malfunction of the pump, the waste discharged ends up back on our coastline and can be seen along the Xghajra coast to Zonqor Point, past St Thomas Bay and down to Marsaxlokk.

Residents of Xghajra have been exposed to this daily sewage discharge for donkey's years. At last it was hoped that this health and environmental hazard was shortly to cease. The Labour government of 1997, in line with the Barcelona convention, intended to build sewage treatment plants in selected areas, one of which would put an end to the sewage discharge at Wied Ghammieq.

Plans were in hand to have these plants commissioned and in use by the end of 1998 mid-1999. The permanent and summer residents of Xghajra were at long last being treated like other Maltese citizens. However, these plans were shelved with the return of a 'new' administration in 1998.

Present government ministers and officials state that the discharge of sewage and other waste into the sea at Wied Ghammieq is planned to stop in 2007 (previously 2005). Health, the environment and the general well-being of the people of Xghajra no longer seem to be a priority. We will have to endure more sewage on our shores for at least another three years.

We, the underprivileged people of Xghajra and the locality itself, are not included in any immediate plans by the administration regarding sewage discharge similar to what was previously planned and agreed to some seven years ago under a Labour government as part of a pilot socio-economic plan for the south of Malta

I wonder how environmental groups like Greenpeace either seem uninterested in this environmental devastation or perhaps they do not know where Xghajra and Wied Ghammieq are or else cannot be bothered to sound out due to our southerly location.

Who cares about Xghajra? As a small locality (1,300 permanent population rising to around 3,500 in summer) with only some 900 voters but with a population growth of 10 per cent a year, does not seem to attract the same attention as localities like Sliema, St Julian's, St Paul's Bay or Gozo, which may be more politically sensitive.

Much is being said about the environment, pollution and that "the polluter must pay". But surely Xghajra and its residents deserve a better deal where health and the environment are concerned. And the sewage outlet at Wied Ghammieq? Who cares about the daily appearance of raw sewage on our coastline? We now have the year 2007 to look forward to, although some experts predict that this date may need to be extended yet again.

Do you really believe that we have a serious and caring government? I do not think so and neither do my fellow residents and visitors of Xghajra.