Mepa reform

While welcoming the announcement that the Prime Minister is placing the environment at the top of the agenda for this legislature and has taken the Malta Environment and Planning Authority under his wing, I feel that the emphasis is predominantly (if not exclusively) on the planning process and will not address the more fundamental issues that also require reform, such as the need to have a strong environmental agency that can truly protect our environment.

It is not a generally-known fact that Mepa is actually composed of two separate structures, the ex-Planning Authority and the Environment Protection Directorate. For reasons that did not follow any logic, these two entities were forced into a marriage of convenience some years ago.

Since then Malta joined the EU and transposed a whole load of environmental regulations, which are to be administered by the Environmental Protection Directorate. One would have thought that the directorate would have been appropriately strengthened so as to be in a position to effectively administer these new responsibilities and become the guardian for the environment we hoped it would be.

This was not to be; the human resource base did not increase appreciably; it failed to assert itself in the formulation of national policies and indeed the powers-that-be found it convenient to leave it without a director for around two years. The net result is that the state of the environment is arguably in a worse situation than it was a few years ago.

The roles of the two directorates are very distinct: while the Planning Directorate is mainly responsible for approving development permits, the Environment Protection Directorate is responsible for environment protection in Malta - a great responsibility when one considers the huge amount of work that has to be carried out in order to bring Malta in line with its EU obligations.

The intention of the merger may have been to strengthen the Environment Protection Directorate. However, Mepa officials would be the first to admit that the Environment Protection Directorate's human resource base is still too small to cope with the added responsibilities; unfortunately, measures to address this situation have been cosmetic in nature. No small wonder Malta is facing infringement procedures on a significant number of environmental issues.

It is important to point out that the recent impetus for the reform of Mepa was not brought about by the fact that the Environment Protection Directorate is struggling to meet its responsibilities, but through a series of absurd decisions taken by the DCC boards in the Planning Directorate that were brought to the fore by Mepa's auditor.

In this light, I hope that the reform of Mepa does not only concentrate on the revamping of the Planning Directorate, but also properly addresses the lack of human resources and enforcement capacity of the Environment Directorate.

One other point that needs emphasising is that, contrary to public perception, Mepa is not the only authority entrusted with the protection of the environment. The Malta Resources Authority (MRA), falling under the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure, is the competent authority responsible for energy, water and minerals. Again, this authority lacks the resources to bring about the necessary environmental improvements this country urgently needs. Suffice to say that, as far as I know, MRA has only two full-time staff to regulate all Malta's water resources. No small wonder that our groundwater resource is in such a pitiful state.

Having two separate authorities - Mepa and MRA - dealing with the same environmental issues inevitably creates ambiguity. For example, more than 16 months after coming into force, it is not clear whether the very important Minimum Energy Performance in Buildings Regulations (that stipulate the need for insulation, double glazing and a rainwater cistern for each new development) is regulated by Mepa or MRA, or indeed either.

Similarly, while Mepa is responsible for drafting policies relating to climate change, it is the MRA that is responsible for energy (and water) policies. Climate change and energy issues are so intrinsically linked that I cannot fathom how we can have two separate agencies, under two different ministries, working on the same plan and yet hope to have a coherent policy to take us smoothly through the next 15 to 20 years.

Only last week, the new Minister for Resources and Infrastructure George Pullicino, announced that the Government is to prepare a plan to reduce Malta's greenhouse gas emissions. A welcome measure, without doubt. The only oddity is that the authority actually responsible for climate change falls under the responsibility of the Prime Minister and not his ministry!