UPDATED: 'No lessons learnt' from Sant' Antnin plant controversy - committee

(Adds Resources Ministry reaction)

The Committee against the Sant’Antnin Waste Recycling Plant said today that in announcing the building of another two recyling plants, the government had shown that it learnt no lessons from the way it handled the issue over the recycling plant at Sant’Antnin, Marsascala.

The committee observed that the government had announced that new plants would be located at Ghallis and between Xewkija and Sannat in Gozo, but it never consulted anyone before making the announcement.

Furthermore, the site at Ghallis had been one of the alternatives proposed for the Sant’Antnin plant at Marsascala, but a company engaged by Wasteserv had said the area was not suitable, because, among other things, it was too small. Therefore, how was this site now good enough for an even bigger plant?

The committee said that the Sant’Antnin plant was originally meant to handle waste from all over Malta, and it was only after strong opposition that the authorities had reviewed their strategy and decided to have other plants as well.

The committee said it had also been right when it had had warned that the government would also opt for an incinerator. The committee urged the local council of Marsaxlokk to resist the siting of the incinerator within its boundaries. It also urged all councils in the south of Malta to work together.

The Resources Ministry in a reaction said that the government had produced a consultation document on the waste management strategy and was holding talks about it.

The Committee against the Sant' Antnin plant never participated in talks held in preparation for the strategy and once it was published, it was making protests which were not based on fact.

The ministry said the committee had in the past claimed that an incinerator would be built within Sant' Antnin plant itself and had now been proved wrong. The planned incinerator at Delimara would only treat material which cannot be handled by other plants. The incinerator would treat Refuse Derived Fuel which had high potential for clean energy production .

Furthermore, the ministry said, the decision that the Sant' Antnin plant would not handle all of Malta's municipal waste was taken even before the committee made its objections. Indeed, when the application for EU funds was made, it was declared that the Sant' Antnin plant would handle up to a maximum of 71,000 tons.

The proposed new waste strategy can be found at www.wastestrategy.gov.mt