Maghtab today

Maghtab is a residential and agricultural locality and is not a rubbish dump. Most Maltese don't know this. We are also under the impression that the Maghtab landfill is closed and has been since 2004. We are wrong. The landfill never closed but was renamed - a deception created by our politicians.

We are still living under this ever-increasing mountain of rubbish, be it "engineered" or not, and have been since 1971, or, more to the point, for the past 36 years. In 1986 (21 years ago) the opposition in Parliament was hell bent on making the issue of the Maghtab landfill one of its main "battle cries" to gain political mileage - they used to say that when and if they come to govern this country they would close this landfill down.

Today it's still open and does in fact have another 20 or more years to go, before it is actually pushed into the sea and into our lands and homes. We have built this mountain and cannot remove it, even if we wanted to, as this would be too costly and dangerous to our health. One of Malta's nicest coastlines has been destroyed forever. Well done! A week ago us residents were "invited" to go and see for ourselves the "progress" that the new "engineered" landfill has developed into. We were also graced by our PM, plus his men responsible for the outcome of the mountain on a "tour". We were then taken for "tea and biscuits" while they presented the "new rehabilitation project".

I honestly think that enough wool has been pulled over our eyes for far too long now and it's time the decision makers admit their blunder. The only way to gain some credibility is to listen to what we are asking for. We know that trying to get them to close it down just won't happen. All we want is to change the present entrance to the dump to an access entering from the coast road. And for Maghtab (the village) to be rehabilitated as has every other place on our islands.

Maybe someday our kids will start saying where they come from, without the fear of being teased and harassed in their schools. Maghtab is a village and not a dump. But us residents are treated as such.