Mepa restores emergency pollution reporting hotline

Citizens should now be able to call a 24-hour line that actually works to report pollution or illegal development after the planning authority reinstated an emergency number it had quietly suspended.

The new number, 2069 9595, was launched yesterday by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and can be used to report any form of development or environmental abuse in Malta and Gozo.

The announcement of the new line comes after The Sunday Times found that the authority had "temporarily suspended" its emergency pollution reporting service without informing the public or providing alternative measures.

That followed the public outcry over a similar move by the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) to temporarily suspend its SMS service to report vehicle emissions, again without making an announcement.

Mepa's new number replaces four other emergency lines and will be open for any reports that fall under pollution control, littering, nature protection, construction site management and illegal development.

The reports would be taken by a privately-run call centre which, in turn, would inform the relevant section, a Mepa spokesman said. Each section would have "an around-the-clock team of enforcement officers" on call. This meant that if someone reported an oil spill at 2 a.m. the enforcement officer would follow the report and go on site, he explained.

A few hours before the announcement yesterday, the Sliema Residents Association condemned Mepa for not informing the public about the halted service.

The association said such behaviour was unworthy of any self-respecting authority financed from public funds and tasked to safeguard the citizens' rights to a healthy environment and good quality of life.

The suspension of the pollution reporting service was deemed "unacceptable" by the authority's chairman, Austin Walker who also said nobody would be shouldering responsibility for the decision.