Beyond stop orders at Marsa’s Menqa

While the Malta Environment and Planning Authority has made a welcome decision to issue a stop order on fuel loading at a government entity in Marsa – Mediterranean Offshore Bunkering Company (MOBC) – due to what has been described as “the unacceptable air pollution resulting from oil berthing facilities”, there are far more issues beyond this particular stop order that need to be questioned and addressed before anyone can sigh with relief that the Marsa noxious fumes issue is being seriously tackled on the way to being finally resolved.

This is particularly so since MOBC and Hexagon House have been around since far earlier than 1995 when reports of the noxious fumes were first filed at Mepa’s environment directorate by then HSBC employees and senior management who then occupied the building that presently houses Mepa’s environment directorate.

It is a given that Mario de Marco has inherited the Hexagon House problem along with many other environmental problems arising from years of environmental neglect. I equally accept the fact that while Dr de Marco might not be responsible for the creation of the noxious fumes pervading Hexagon House and residences nearby, he has become responsible for resolving the problem. Even though at a ministerial level the buck stops – as it has done ever since he assumed the Mepa and the environment brief – with the Prime Minister himself.

The Maltese public does not need more spin. It needs effective resolution of problems.

This will only come about when we have answers to the following questions:

• Why did the Gonzi government shirk from applying the polluter pays principle when the state apparatus was fully aware of illegal disposal of oily waste in the public sewers?

• Why did the PN Administration choose to acquire the Hexagon House premises when reports of its environmental problems were already well known to Mepa?

• Is it true or not that Mepa is presently considering expansion plans for oil-related industrial activities in Marsa in spite of the fact that in a pre-electoral brochure Minister Austin Gatt had promised to convert the Marsa Menqa into a mega yacht marina?

• How effectively and rigorously are the IPPC permits governing all oil-related commercial entities in the Marsa Menqa area being monitored and regulated?

• Has it been established whether the resultant fumes are toxic or hazardous?

• Now that Dr de Marco has ended his two-month stint at Hexagon House, which was initially meant to last only one week, can Mepa’s Hexagon House employees have any indicative dates by when they can return safely to work comforted by the thought that the noxious fumes problem in the area has been addressed once and for all?

• Was it not rather insensitive of the parliamentary secretary – who I always considered to be a rational, level-headed person – to claim that he felt comfortable working at Hexagon House when this was definitely not the feeling among staffers there who have had to work from home on union directives these past months?

The fact that the government still has to carry out discussions with all the stakeholders somehow related to the issue merely goes to prove that no date seems to be in sight yet as to when this matter can be hopefully resolved once and for all.