Mepa halts Cottonera dredging works

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has ordered dredging works at the Cottonera waterfront to stop after Lino Bugeja, a historian who specialises on Vittoriosa, alerted The Times that the works were not being supervised by an archaeologist, as stipulated by the authority.

Thanks to Mr Bugeja's presence of mind and keen observation, an enforcement notice was issued.

The dredging had been taking place close to the Casino di Venezia, an area which is considered fertile ground for archaeological remains dating back to mediaeval times.

Following inquiries by The Times with Heritage Malta and the Superintendence dealing with heritage sites, the contractor carrying out the works was ordered to stop.

The contractor was doing the work on behalf of the Grand Harbour Marina Consortium.

A spokesman for Mepa said that according to the conditions attached to the permit to clear the seabed for the laying of moorings for super yachts, the removal of sediment had to be carried out by siphoning the silt so as not to break or otherwise ruin important remains.

The dredging works, however, were being carried with a metal claw. According to an eyewitness, the dredger was pulling up silt from near the quay and dumping it a couple of metres away from the pier without anyone checking for finds.

Walter Bonnici, deputy chairman of Grand Harbour Marina, said the company intervened immediately it found out that the contractor was in breach of Mepa conditions.

Mr Bonnici said the contractor had been given a warning and asked to draw up a method statement for Mepa indicating how dredging works would carry one in line with the stipulated conditions.

The Mepa spokesman said that about four years ago, before the Cottonera project was given the green light, a survey was carried out of the seabed along this particular stretch of the waterfront and sediment samples had indicated that there was a high probability of remains being found dating back to the medieval period, the Knights of St John and the British era, particularly the Victorian period.

Mariners of those eras often got rid of certain items they no longer wanted, or which might have got them entangled with the law, by throwing them overboard.

The Mepa spokesman explained that Grand Harbour and especially the creeks at the Cottonera was ground rich in historical artefacts. This was borne out by chance finds, surveys done by the former Museums Department and excavations carried out by foreign teams.

Asked what made him take a closer look, Mr Bugeja said his sensitivity to cultural heritage had made him investigate why no archaeologist was on the spot to supervise the works. "I definitely did not want to see a repetition of what happened at other sites which ought to have been treated with greater respect for what our fearbears left behind as heritage.

"The British had carried out surveys of the seabed at Vittoriosa and among the finds was a magnificent Roman jar made of green glass which is housed at the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta," Mr Bugeja explained.

Marine archaeologist Timmy Gambin, who is the expert appointed by the consortium to oversee the removal of the silt, said he had an assistant on site to see that the Mepa conditions were being adhered to.

At the time The Times photographer took the pictures accompanying this story, no one was seen checking what was being lifted out of the water.

Mr Gambin explained that the silt is normally sifted by hand inch by inch in search of any remains.

Mr Bugeja said Heritage Malta ought to have a hotline on which people noticing such infringements would be able to pass on the information, there and then.

"Otherwise, going round in circles, trying to see who is responsible for what, would put most people off," Mr Bugeja argued.