Black dust: Back to the drawing board

Although the House - including government MPs - were hoping that in this day and age of forensics and technological advancement the black dust issue would have been solved or on the way to a final solution by the time the Prime Minister wound up the Parliamentary debate on the Budget, all we were told was that the link between the dust in the southern parts of Malta and the power station did not seem to result in a fresh report, but the Marsa power station remained suspect - according to the PM himself.

What I found absurd and unacceptable were the following:

a) that the Prime Minister tabled a report in the House which had originally been tabled already by Minister Zammit Dimech some 10 years ago when he had identified the source and even drawn up an action plan to mitigate the problem;

b) that the PM waxed lyrical in favour of that report which only days ago government ministers and entities have rubbished as having been dated and not reflecting present day realities;

c) but even worse, that after all these months Mepa had the gall to present the PM - coincidentally on the same day of the parliamentary debate - with a report that in its summary conclusions proposed inter alia as a way forward the promise to focus on four lines of action, among which one found a "commitment" that Mepa will also "attempt" to analyse statistically the data from its (air quality) stations in order to identify any possible trends.

In my humble opinion such analysis should have not only been carried out already but the monitoring and analysis should have been done on an ongoing basis from the moment this problem came to the fore again many months ago.

With these considerations in mind the government's proposal that a parliamentary ad hoc committee should be set up to provide us parliamentarians with technical info on the subject is premature at this stage.

We committed ourselves to willingly engage in such a committee only when we can be reassured that:

a) all investigations and tests have been carried out;

b) the government has definitely identified the source of black dust;

c) and after the government has drawn up a plan of action as to how to address this long festering problem that has caused so much inconvenience and so many health hazards to numerous citizens due to its environmental health impact.

For the benefit of those who cannot understand why we are urgently seeking a parliamentary debate on the power station extension and are at the same time calling for such a committee to start its work at a later stage, the issues are totally different from one another.

In the power plant extension's case we are talking of a mega contract that has already been signed. While in the case of the black dust issue it seems that we are back to square one - with the PM still unable to identify where the black dust is emanating from as well as being stubbornly reluctant to commit himself to a resolution of this issue within a specific time frame - as long suggested by the Opposition.

All this at a time when in the PM's own words, Mepa had been entrusted with a report for a "permanent solution" on the black dust phenomenon.