In his contribution (September 20), Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino demands that I "must give an opinion" on the proposed development that will replace the present eco-pod system at the Sant'Antnin composting and waste recycling facility. The minister's insistence on having Labour's opinion is understandable since the Sant'Antnin waste facility placed him in a tight corner and now all his costly advisers are hopelessly trying to pull him back on the wall. In any case, he will find our device "cheap and effective"!
The minister makes more demands. He demands that I "reassure" myself that the Zwejra dump was engineered to the requirements of the landfill directive despite the fact that it was originally designed to be a temporary waste dump with technical design requirements that are far less stringent than for engineered landfills. Its designation to an engineered landfill came as an afterthought, after the temporary dump was constructed! Readers, like myself, are weary of the government's antics to patch up the results of incompetence in the waste management sector.
Should we be compelled to believe the Minister for the Environment when he claims that Zwejra is engineered to EU standards simply because he says so? Should we be compelled to believe the minister when he claims that the proposed re-development of the Sant'Antnin facility will not receive more than 71,000 tones of waste? Labour's environmental policy addressed the issue of composting by opting for small regional composting plants, rather than concentrate waste at one plant. This will reduce the potential of contamination and the amount of waste reaching each composting plant. Moreover, transport costs will be minimised by shorter distances, saving many tones of fuel every day.
My views on the proposed re-development of the Sant'Antnin recycling plant are for now limited to its location rather than to the plant itself, about which we know very little. After all, Mr Pullicino has not presented the blueprints of this project and the environmental impact assessment report in Parliament. We will give our opinion when this information is made available.
The location of waste management facilities is regulated by the conditions set down in the landfills directive. These include, among other concerns, the distance from residential areas and protection of groundwater. These two concerns are of utmost importance but the second issue is fundamental and has conditioned the location of post-war waste management facilities in Malta, long before Malta joined the EU.
Indeed, the Labour administrations of the 1970s located an agricultural waste dumping site at Maghtab (later this was to grow to the present uncontrollable dump) because this site lies outside the aquifer protection zone. Similarly, last year's extension of the dump at Ta' Zwejra by the present administration was also conditioned by the same concern for the protection of groundwater. The policy restricting the location of polluting waste facilities to areas outside the aquifer protection zone ensured that our good quality groundwater resources are protected from contamination emanating from waste management facilities.
Now we see an inexplicable reversal of this policy. The government's decision to rebuild the Sant'Antnin waste management plant on the same site (originally selected by a former PN administration) is total denial of the policy protecting groundwater. The Sant'Antnin waste recycling plant lies within the aquifer protection zone and the proposed developments will expose the water table to contamination by leaks which will directly affect the proximal boreholes to its north and south that extract drinking water.
This plant is a potential polluter of groundwater and should have never been located there. Rebuilding of this plant at the same place breaches the Water Services Corporation's regulations. Why did the Malta Resources Authority (responsible for protecting our groundwater) not raise this issue, which should have shot down Wasteserv's proposal during the EIA process?
To make matters worse, the company commissioned by Wasteserv (the ubiquitous SLR Ltd.) to carry out a report in 2004 on the location of the proposed waste recycling plant noted in its report that the proposed new Sant'Antnin facility lies outside the aquifer protection zone. This is not the case. The Sant'Antnin facility lies within the aquifer protection zone. If SLR Ltd was not aware of this then they should answer for the shortcoming and be suspended from making further environmental reports in this country.
Strangely, Mepa seems to have overlooked this matter even though six years earlier an application for an extension of a quarry adjacent to Sant'Antnin was shot down by the Planning Authority (on the advice of the WSC) specifically because the quarry lies within the aquifer protection zone! Several hurdles were thrown at the application for the extension of this innocuous limestone quarry on the premise that it may endanger groundwater because it lies on the aquifer protection zone. Six years later, not a word is uttered by the same authority about the dangers of locating a waste recycling plant even more inland of the aquifer protection zone boundary!
This is clearly a case of applying two weights and two measures for the same locality. Alas, this is also how Mepa's top management operates. Accountability demands that the director general of Mepa should respond on this issue or resign. I already have asked for his resignation in Parliament and do not hesitate to do the same here.
Under PN administrations, accountability is an unnecessary luxury. Exasperated with these chronic failures in the waste management sector (the fruit of incompetence), Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and his ministers are trying to expunge their failures by publicly blaming sections of the people. The wrath of the residents of Marsascala at the proposed Sant'Antnin waste facility was met with the government's attempts to vilify these residents.
Now Labour supporters are being publicly accused of being responsible for the rampant littering we see around us! This accusation is highly provocative and divisive in nature. The Prime Minister should be more introspective in his statements so that he may discover who is really responsible for the state of the environment we have today.
The littering problem is part of a social malaise that has crept on this nation over the past 20 years or so. This malaise is not unrelated to the poor example and the quality of leadership by those in power (the past two decades were mostly dominated by PN administrations). During the short interlude of Labour government, Alfred Sant tried to introduce a sense of accountability among ministers because we know that exemplary behaviour is more effective than lofty words which, when unimplemented, translate to hypocrisy.
The culture of selfish greed, manifested in unsustainable development for the past two decades has led to anti-social behaviour. We see the cumulative effects of this everywhere. Aggressive driving with dire consequences for others, illegal dumping, disregard for others and, of course, littering of public places. This is the legacy of PN administrations and their irresponsible form of government that has led to social decline.
The future Labour administration will have the immense task of bringing social responsibility at all levels of society back on this nation's agenda. A socialist government will lead by example and by placing faith in education. The falling standards in national education and increasing illiteracy (another sad legacy of PN administrations) is a shocking reality which has to be dealt with.
Proper waste management can only be achieved when society is allowed to partake in the initiatives launched by local and central government and not simply forced to succumb to them. When the latter happens, the wrath of the people of Marsascala, Maghtab, Madliena and elsewhere becomes justifiable. Who can blame them?
Mr Mizzi is the MLP's main spokesman for infrastructural services.