Breaking Sliema and deodorising the landfill

Sitting on a bench, waiting for the wreckers to come. A tamarisk offers its spindly sheltered shade from the orange streetlight. It is not every day I walk through Sliema at 5 a.m.

The only traffic on the inner streets at this hour is down to a handful of octogenarians. In ones, but not twos. Symmetrical rows of balconies still standing guard, no cars in the street and these occasional silent figures sweeping by on their individual missions. Out on the Sliema front more figures in singles and pairs, walk or run the concrete mile.

Looking across at the curved wooden balcony of the old naval clinic I notice there is a window missing. It gives the appearance of looking out on the world with one dark eye open, the other shut tight. The magnificent old façade next door to Il-Pjazzetta is made to seem small and insignificant by the new kids on the block, angular apartments rising seven floors. All very nice, but it could be anywhere. Any old bland nondescript town with deadpan streets devoid of the sense that there might have been a past. Without soul.

Hollowed out, with only its façade left standing, this solitary sentinel makes an unspoken statement: "This was an era. Look about you, there may be more. Step off the promenade, enter these streets. We are the old aged citizens of this town, each with a story to spell. Just run your eyes over our fine lines and weathered rock to understand how we were built with care and dignity."

Imagining I am a newly arrived tourist visiting the resort town of Sliema. Trudging up the hill in Tower Road until a space opens between the buildings, glancing left down High Street. The pillared balcony of the oldest house in Sliema beckons from the far end of the street whispers to the senses:

"Come this way. Sliema is more than rows of same-faced tower boxes. Explore the side streets and you may find some treasures defying the monoliths. Speciality shops, an interesting old pub tucked away, a pedestrian gateway to this town's noble streets untouched as yet by greed. Come see how we lived and how we have preserved it for all generations. Until now."

Ever since I first came to Sliema in 1971, that part of High Street which sweeps up and narrows near the Hole in the Wall pub has held a special fascination. The lane always felt as if it followed some natural contour, perhaps an ancient pathway, beneath the paving. Over the years the character of this quaint corner has been lovingly embellished to become one of Sliema's most picturesque features.

The dwelling and gift shop (now gutted pending demolition) on the right-hand side of the lane (see picture) brought out the typical features of this Urban Conservation Area, unique in the Mediterranean and in the world. Like an endemic plant which cannot be found growing outside the Maltese Islands, this street architecture was worth every effort preserving.

APEM - Association for Planning of Environmental Mayhem

"Limestone mafia" is a phrase that ricochets off the canyon walls of apartment blocks where quaint alleyways once soothed the urban stroller.

"Quagmire" is the only word I can think of to describe planning in Malta in 2006. The Sliema house under appeal to the highly controversial granting of a permit to demolish has become a symbol of the questionable decisions meted out by a system which has turned in on itself.

Residents and the local council filed objections against destroying the property. MEPA's own technical staff and public entities such as the Heritage Superintendence of Cultural Heritage recommended preservation of the house which sits at the junction of Sliema's earliest roads.

This has been a very high profile mistake. Until Wednesday there had been not yet been any apparent move to cut out the gangrene of a warped planning decision that was due to set a tragic precedent. The Minister for Environment should have recognised that things had gone too far, stepped in and exercised his powers (if he has any) to intervene and stop the loss of this building in the heart and soul of old Sliema.

Too many pathways have been forged for developers to wriggle their way through the planning mesh. The hole in the fence has widened into a super highway. The rate at which refusals are overturned is raising eyebrows. The stone barons are lining their pockets as people stand and gape in horror at the machine gone mad as our heritage houses drop like flies. Or worse, switch off.

A serious review is vital, especially of the arenas within the colossus where questionable decisions are nibbling away at Malta and Gozo's historical and rural character in both town and country. The "monster with two heads" has spun out of control.

The minister should have acted beyond the powers invested in him by Development Planning Act to reverse an erroneous decision that has been made in the prevailing climate of error and misinterpretation surrounding the case of the Ghar il-Lembi Street house.

At the very least he has the power to order an Emergency Conservation Order for the house to prevent its destruction before the appeal to revoke the permit can be heard. This seems the onundrum. The use of emergency conservation orders, which have been used to protect threatened properties of heritage value until full conservation measures can be put in place, seems to have dwindled of late.

Air freshener for Ghallis

Strange to tell, Maghtab (the dump, not the village) started off as an agricultural project in the Seventies. The original equation was: waste + soil = fertile fields. But over the years the waste dump spun out of control to become the island's biggest embarrassment.

This might not have been so bad if harmless potato peelings, etc., had entirely made up the waste. But Maghtab became the receptacle of mixed waste including some hazardous discards from industrial and domestic use. The waste-to-fields project never got off the ground and the mountain just went on growing. No one seemed able to stop it.

"A high level of protection of the environment and public health" is what the developers of the next landfill are promising. At a public hearing held at MEPA last month for the development of Ghallis ta' Gewwa landfill, Vince Magri, CEO at WasteServ, said that the need for a new landfill was urgent. In two more months, he said, the Ta' Zwejra landfill would be full.

The Malta Resources Authority Water Directorate has expressed concern over whether the liner would be adequate to prevent contamination of the water table. The landfill is sited outside the Aquifer Protection Zone but the underlying zonqor stone is prone to fractures and joints. Leachate seeping to the bottom of the landfill would be collected and pumped back to the top to filter down again. This helps accelerate decomposition.

The land which is due to be dug up for deposit of waste is home to the rosemary herb which grows in abundance together with pomegranate trees and blackberry bushes. Forty carob trees dot the landscape.

Will the new landfill be as smelly as the present one? The smell of decaying garbage is expected to be reduced but there will still be some odour nuisance. The use of deodorisers is anticipated in attempt to mask smells. At one of the consultation meetings preceding the hearing, Naxxar's mayor questioned the dispersion of chemicals into the air on health grounds.

Air fresheners and deodorisers release chemicals into the air which do not destroy odours but only hide them. Some are designed to make the nose less sensitive for detecting smells. Other chemicals attempt to mask smells with synthetic perfumes. These chemicals are studied by environmental scientists as pollutants and can cause irritation of the nose and lungs.

An ingredient sometimes used is formaldehyde, one of the worst offenders for respiratory irritation as well as a recognised cancer-causing agent. Anyone with asthma or lung ailments could be severely affected by formaldehyde or a similar substance being released into the environment to make people less aware of smells emanating form landfills.

Another ingredient sometimes used in air fresheners is para-dichlorobenzine, also used as moth repellent. This chemical is known to cause cancer in animals and may cause it in humans as well.

In a US random study of 1,000 people, 98 per cent had detectable levels of it in their urine or blood. An air freshener tested on mice produced acute toxic effects, including respiratory reactions mimicking asthma. Other ingredients may include known cancer causing substances, like isopropyl alcohol and d-limonene, which can be harmful when vaporised and breathed.

WasteServ has said that no hazardous chemicals will be used in the deodorising of the Ghallis ta' Gewwa landfill.

Marsascala moat

"A moat filled with millions of recycled flattened plastic bottles to obtain a water effect" is planned by WasteServ for the park proposed next to the Sant'Antnin recycling plant. Is there a danger this might convey the wrong message that it is alright to chuck your plastic waste into streams and river valleys? Think again. Why not have a moat with natural water, far more pleasant to the senses? The water could be collected and reused on site.

Il-Mixtla ta' Bormla

A natural wooded area under St Helen's Bastion in Cospicua known as Il-Mixtla ta' Bormla is threatened by a planning application (PA 07041/05) to "create a recreational area with new landscaping, paving works and street furniture." The grove is similar to the pinetum of Sa Maison but is largely made up of a type of ficus tree.

A Cospicua resident who has objected to the application comments: "All the natural areas have been taken. Il-Fortini, a beautiful valley has almost all been built up and the only patch of natural grass and soil within this walled city is Il-Mixtla. This sizable green area within the walls of Cospicua will be ruined."