Disposal of rubbish

The St Paul's Bay local council is all the time striving to keep the environment as clean as possible.

Tons of rubbish are disposed of everyday. It is unfortunate, however, that this local council has to face most abnormal situations without being given the funds to cater for the summer months.

During the summer - nearly six months of the year - the local council has to take care of over 60,000 people, made up of all-year-round residents, summer residents and tourists, with a budget that is based on a population of around 18,000.

To these people, one would have to add, thousands of others who visit us during weekends. Perhaps, now, the central government has realised this problem and will, hopefully, take care of it as part of the proposed local council reform.

It is not the first time that residents, perhaps unknowingly, take out their garbage just after collection has taken place. Added to this, many times, residents also take out garbage bags late at night. I have to say that, in both cases, these result in a great feast for cats and dogs, with disastrous results on our pavements.

Besides that, when garbage collectors pick up such rubbish, this ends up spread all over the place because the bags have been torn by the same cats and dogs. This needs to stop immediately. In fact, local wardens have now started fining people.

The litter bins along the promenade described by Emeline Fenech (August 12) as unsightly are solely meant for litter and not domestic waste. Is the local council to blame if irresponsible people dispose of liquid leftovers in these litter bins? Is it the local council's fault that people dispose of their daily waste next or into these litter bins? In summer, apart from the local council routine emptying, these bins are seen to once more daily at an extra cost.

For sure, I need to thank the Malta Tourism Authority in its bid to help keep our locality clean in summer. Yet, I must say, it is very difficult to beat the irresponsible people!

As far as pot holes are concerned, I have to note that practically all these potholes are the result of so-called repairs by the Water Services Corporation. The local council is continuously trying to ensure that water leakages and repairs do not ruin our streets and that the resulting "repairs" carried out are, effectively, carried out in the correct way - something that has not happened yet. In fact, the local council has, quite often, repaired these potholes at its own expense.

One has to bear in mind that the local council has limited funds to work with and has no funds allocated for all the extra residents who visit the locality, dumping waste - both domestic and bulky, other than that allocated to its 18,000 registered residents!

And I have to stress that, yes, as mayor of St Paul's Bay, I do care.