Five years and almost €600,000 into its construction, a dispute over a controversial new cemetery in Nadur continues to rage unabated.
Adequate precautions have been taken to ensure contamination caused by the decomposition of human remains will be impossible
Environmentalists and local farmers say that the cemetery, which is situated above a freshwater spring, will contaminate the area’s groundwater and leave 5,000 trees parched.
But the local parish and architect responsible for the project insist the claims are completely unfounded and that Gozo’s second-largest town is crying out for an adequately-sized burial ground.
Work on the 600-grave cemetery has been at a standstill since March 2011, when modifications to the original plans triggered a Malta Environment and Planning Authority enforcement notice.
The modifications were implemented to assuage farmers’ fears of water contamination, said architect Edward Scerri.
“We created a series of underground corridors, isolated each grave and encased the entire thing in cement. Rather than a cemetery, the site is more like a bunker.”
Local farmer and Gozitano Agriculture Society president Martin Camilleri disputed the assertion.
“No membrane was laid down, and the structure they’ve built has already cracked in certain parts, allowing water to seep through. The groundwater will never be the same,” he told The Sunday Times.
Farmers opposing the project insist that the cemetery has already started taking its toll on their groundwater’s quality and quantity.
They claim that the first rains after the cemetery excavation began led to spring water emerging white and silted, and that the amount of water discharged by the spring has increased in winter but decreased significantly, when they need it most.
Mr Scerri dismissed the claim of white silted water emerging from the spring several hundred metres away as “practically impossible” and said that when he visited the farmers’ reservoir, there was no sign of diminished water levels.
He also said that a hydrologist report commissioned by opponents to the cemetery had relied on water samples provided by the farmers themselves.
The hydrologist in question is Marco Cremona, who told The Sunday Times that farmers had provided him with water samples as well as photos of silted water emerging from the spring.
“I don’t know how anyone would be able to tamper with a groundwater supply to fake its contamination,” Mr Cremona said.
“Based on the evidence I was given, my conclusion was thatthe spring water had beencontaminated, and that the most reasonable cause had been the cemetery’s excavation.”
His greatest concern was that the aquifer’s hydrological regime had been disrupted.
“Given time, water can be purified of certain pollutants. But if excavation works have led to water being channelled out of the spring faster, these pollutants will emerge too.”
Mr Scerri and Nadur parish priest Jimmy Xerri insist that adequate precautions have been taken to ensure contamination caused by the decomposition of human remains will be impossible.
They and other cemetery proponents say that neither the Malta Resource Authority nor the Public Health Department has objected to the project, and that a hydrology report presented with the permit application had not found any cause for groundwater concern.
Mr Cremona begged to differ. “The hydrology report presented by the developer completely omitted any information concerning the fresh water streams below the cemetery.”
As a result, no control water samples were taken, meaning experts have no way of comparing existing water to that pre-excavation.
“The obligation to carry out a proper water analysis rested with the developer. It was not done, and now we’re in a situation where it’s one side’s word against the other,” Mr Cremona said.