The cost of illegal dumping

Workers of the Cleansing Services Department last month collected over 1,600 tonnes of rubbish dumped illegally in valleys, arterial roads and industrial estates.

This amount is three times that collected in August last year and cost Lm50,000 to pick up, pushing the yearly expense of such collections to about Lm340,000 so far this year.

Resources and Infrastructure Minister Ninu Zammit pointed out that this money could have been used on embellishment projects rather than cleansing operations.

"Considering that restoring the Lion Fountain at Floriana cost Lm1,000, imagine what one can do with Lm340,000," he said.

Illegally dumped rubbish had been collected from Wied l-Isqof and Wied il-Hemsija at Rabat, Bingemma Valley at Mgarr, Wied Qannotta at Wardija and Wied Irmiedi at Attard. Freephone number 8007 6608 and e-mail address customercare.cleansing@gov.mt were introduced last year to enable the public to report cases of illegal dumping. Last month a record 162 cases were reported.

Eighty-two of these were referred to local councils, 42 were carried out by the Cleansing Services Department on the same day and the rest carried out within a week.