When the Nationalist Party in government delivered on its decision to upgrade the Sant’Antnin waste treatment plant in Marsascala, it did so to improve the well-being of the people there. When the organic fraction processed by the plant was reduced by half despite the €23 million investment that went into the upgrading process, the PN in government based its decision on the fact that it did not make sense to treat so much waste close to residential areas.

When the PN in government reversed the decision by the previous Labour government to bag the organic waste in large plastic tunnels and enlarge the throughput of the facility to treat all of Malta’s organic waste, it did so because it believed that the south should not be made to carry the waste management burden for the whole of the island.

When the Nationalist Party in government insisted with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority that the residents should be brought closer and supervise the day-to-day operations of the facility through a formally constituted monitoring committee, it did so because it believed in a new form of government that is transparent and inclusive.

When a Nationalist government pledged to compensate families through the sale of electricity generated by the plant itself, it did so because of its ambitious vision to deal with waste as a resource and not as a burden.

The only problem the PN could not foretell was that even new technologies can let you down if operational experience and professionalism is substituted by partisan politics. This is precisely the fate the upgraded Sant’Antnin waste treatment plant is experiencing today and confirmed by the public statement issued by WasteServ on September 10.

No one disputes the fact that technological processes require monitoring and maintenance. Everybody understands that facilities of this kind will have shutdowns and downtimes. However, the operational implications of facilities such as Sant’Antnin will be catastrophic if the only requisite to operate the plant is whether you are an ally or not of the minister or his party. The WasteServ statement confirmed this.

When I recently asked the minister a number of questions on the operations of the plant, there was more noise forthcoming from the blogs than from the ministry itself. The only hint that the plant is malfunctioning, and has been malfunctioning since May 2013, first came from a prominent expert and blogger who seems to know more than the rest of us. In his blog, the expert confirmed that the situation got worse when the hydrolyser was damaged in May 2013, that is over 15 months under the new management of the Sant’Antnin facility.

Technological processes require monitoring and maintenance

One cannot forget that the minister spent his first 12 months in office auditing the past management practices within WasteServ. So did the audit carried out by the minister effectively improve or degrade matters?

Jamming the fast-closing doors because part of the plant was not commissioned in the last 15 months is such a stale excuse. The fast-closing doors were meant to restrict indoor air from leaving the processing area and to ease the inconvenience of the surrounding residents. If this is not being done because the new management failed to commission some plant and, consequently, chose to degrade residents’ lives, who will be assuming responsibility?

Stockpiling contaminated plastics and other refuse-derived fuels at Sant’Antnin is a potential fire hazard. If this material goes up in flames, then who is responsible for such a blunder? I recall that one of the findings of the audit commissioned by the minister was that the health and safety officer should share the office of the CEO so he would get a broader view of all the risks faced by the company. I am, therefore, assuming that the CEO has a health and safety team working closely with him and has also carried out a risk assessment of such a potential hazard.

My questions are not aimed at undermining the successful operation of the facility. On the contrary, my intention is to shed light on the day-to-day management of the plant. The monitoring committee must fill up this vacuum. Its meetings must be made public and its decisions published on the local council website. Anything short of that and no one will ever know what’s going on behind the Sant’Antnin boundary wall.

I honestly believe that this is a sorry situation in a civilised and democratic society because residents should not be penalised due to lack of experience and professionalism simply by putting the wrong people in the wrong place and getting rid of others.

Charlo Bonnici is a Nationalist MP.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.