There has been very little initiative in the past couple of years to encourage more responsible waste management in Malta. I struggle to think when the last public statement was made following the launching of the Issues Paper on waste.
A minister-in-waiting for 25 years is expected to have more vigour and nerve to revolutionise all that he claimed to be bad when in Opposition.
The major change in waste management in the last months is the release of more officers at WasteServ Malta Ltd. Despite the experience these officers garnered throughout the years, the minister reinvents WasteServ and uses it as a parastatal company to harbour Labourites, as used to be the case in the golden Labour days of the past.
Expelling individuals to address the minister’s discomfort of not having a staunch Labour supporter within the organisation has become the order of the day. What a sad way to treat Malta’s only natural resource.
Brain power should not be politicised and, yet, two WasteServ officials each with over 12 years’ experience in the company have been given the boot. This the minister did for purely political motives even though the officers in question are apolitical.
This is similar to what was happened to former Police Commissioner John Rizzo. He was told to leave by the Prime Minister himself because 12 years in office is a long time.
In come the diehards but out go the ideas and the initiatives. Waste management in this country is suffering for this very reason. Despite the talk that a new Labour government will jack recycling targets up, recycling targets have remained stabilised at best.
The minister responsible for waste management is conveniently avoiding any public debate on the subject. The management of Sant’Antnin plant has gone from bad to worse.
The Marsa incinerator, which Sustainable Development Minister Leo Brincat had used as his backdrop on more than one occasion when in Opposition to criticise the Nationalist government, remains untouched, proving how good the investment was.
The grey bag and the bring-in site initiative too remains as launched in 2008.
Commercial waste is still not being separated. Industrial waste continues to be ignored.
These issues, apart from a host of other sectors, are just being swept under the carpet because, for the minister, out of sight implies out of mind.
On August 6, the ministry responsible for waste management organised a clarification meeting on the tender issued by the same ministry to assess waste-to-energy options. I have it from good sources that this 50-minute long meeting was a farce. The people involved were unable to answer the questions put to them.
Bidders are expected to come up with alternative sites for a waste-to-energy facility because the ministry does not have the guts to name a few preferred places itself. Bidders are also expected to do detailed site investigations they choose so, one day, some of us may wake up to find someone doing a geological survey of our private land.
In come the diehards but out go the ideas and the initiatives
At the meeting, it was also asked why the tender was issued after the government signed an MOU with China to collaborate on, apart from other topics, waste-to-energy. The prospective bidders were unsure as to whether they were expected to liaise with China before bidding just in case somebody recommends a technology that the Chinese have conveniently discarded.
They also asked whether the new government had discarded all the previous studies on waste-to-energy, even those co-financed by the EU or other member states.
What a mess.
Unfortunately, Brincat is being too ambiguous on waste because he fears the Opposition will treat any public debate on the subject in the same manner Joseph Muscat had done during the discussion on the modernisation of the Sant’Antnin waste treatment plant.
Malta is at a loss on this topic because the government is scared of losing out if new initiatives on waste are launched. There is a lot of negative energy on this topic and it shows.
Time will catch up with us as the landfill continues to grow. Brincat may or may not be around but, sure enough, Għallis is not forever. The permit for the Gozo transfer station took six years to be issued. Għallis does not have another six years’ capacity and we are still trying to reinvent the wheel by starting afresh.
So, instead of rolling the heads of experienced people, the ministry should be rolling up its sleeves and come up with some initiatives to responsibilise the public on the subject. We are already many days into this legislature and the feeling is that there are no ideas to be launched in the time that remains.
Charlo Bonnici is a Nationalist MP.