Countryside clean-up paves way for new park

Some 25 tons of rubbish have been removed from the area surrounding St Paul's Fort in Marsaxlokk.

The removal, undertaken because a family park will shortly be built on the site, is part of a Rural Affairs Ministry effort to clean up the countryside, which has seen more than 9,000 tons of rubbish collected in the first six months of this year.

The government also invested more than €500,000 in clean-up equipment during that period.

Visiting the area accompanied by parliamentary assistant Franco Debono, Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino deplored illegal dumping in the countryside. He said there was no excuse to it, following the government's construction of five bulky waste centres and the installation of some 200 bring-in sites. People could also have bulky waste picked up from their homes for free if necessary.

In fact, the Cleansing Services Department received some 7,000 calls in the first half of this year, with approximately 21,000 bulky waste objects being disposed of.

A further 50,000 tons of waste was disposed of at the five civic amenity sites, located in Magħtab, Mrieħel, Luqa, Ħal Far and Xewkija, since the first one opened in November 2006.