Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco has ordered an independent review of the process used by Mepa when it considers requests for film-shooting in sensitive locations.

A report is also being drawn up by the Mepa audit officer into the dumping, by a film company, of a large quantity of sand over a wide area of Dwejra and the Authority has passed on all relevant information for the purpose, the Secretariat for Tourism and the Environment said this evening.

“All this should lead to consideration of what changes should be made when such applications for filming are made, the Authority said.

Dr de Marco visited Dwejra yesterday to see the clean-up operation now under way.

The Secretariat in its statement said the Opposition in an earlier statement today had sought to put pressure on the Mepa audit officer when it already knew that he was carrying out his investigations.

It said Mepa was closely following the clean-up operation.

Initial indications showed that that the eco-system had not been affected since the area where the sand was placed was actually a buffer zone consisting only of rock with no vegetation.

A full evaluation would, however, be made once the sand was removed.

The Secretariat pointed out that the film producers and their contractor had not followed the Mepa permit conditions for filming on the site. They had not given notice that the sand was to be laid, they had not placed impermeable material on the site before the sand was laid, and they had not manually removed the sand when ordered to do so.

The producers subsequently publicly apologised for the fact that the contractor had not followed the permit conditions.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101118/local/dwejra-will-be-restored

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101102/local/film-company-apologises-for-dwejra-disaster