FAA calls for immediate environment protection measures

The environment lobby group Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA), has made a series of proposals for immediate protection of the environment until the reform of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) is carried out.

It said that since the overhaul of MEPA's regulations and structures might take quite some time, interim measures were needed to prevent irreparable damage to the environment through development permits which should not be issued.

The FAA proposals include the reconstitution of the MEPA Board and the immediate restructuring and re-appointment of the MEPA DCC Boards with a reduced complement but on a full-time basis and an immediate ban on any consultations between applicants and chairmen and the members of the different MEPA .

It said the Register of Environment Impact Assessment Consultants (overdue since 1994) should immediately be set up with the proviso that those consultants submitting reports which do not faithfully reflect the reality of the case would be struck off the Register and barred from carrying out future EIA assessments.

Environment Impact Assessment regulations should be urgently revised to give a greater weighting to Social Impact Assessments, as well as reflecting proportions of scale and truly protecting the Maltese environment in its entirety.

The Development Planning Act amendments proposed at the end of the last legislature should be enacted as soon as Parliament convenes.

FAA also called for the immediate implementation of the Building Regulation Guidelines on the Conservation of Fuel, Energy and Natural Resources of .

It stressed that the process of de-scheduling to remove protection from heritage buildings, allowing their demolition, which is presently at the sole discretion of the minister, must be stopped, with approval made subject to parliaentary approval.

It also called for the proper allocation of human resources to MEPA's heritage and enforcement units. "Enforcement must finally be empowered and allowed to take action against abuse without hindrance, immediately moving to direct action to remove abusive structures," the NGO said.

It added that the pre-filtering of ODZ (outside development zones) applications needs to be urgently introduced to enable qualified MEPA vetters to dismiss certain clearly unsuitable ODZ applications which violate MEPA obligations, both from a national and an international point of view.