I am not sure what makes the people of Fgura angrier: whether it is the actual black dust which covers their homes in various periods during the year; or the crass ineptitude with which the government tried – or purposely failed – to tackle the problem over the past decade.

Mepa has not only been completely reactive in the past 12 years but also technically unprepared- Owen Bonnici

Right in the middle of summer we read in the papers that a technical report by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority effectively confirmed what other experts had already concluded in past years, namely that the Marsa power station is the most likely source of the black dust.

This report gives rise to a plethora of questions on an issue which is of a primary health concern to the Fgura residents and those living in the area.

For a start, the current scientific regime calls for much more stringent standards than those adopt-ed in the black dust report.

Then there is the issue of Mepa’s absolute failure to be an effective guarantor of residents’ rights in issues of public health concern.

As we all know, the report was drawn up by Mepa following a request by the Office of the Prime Minister. The fact that the report was commissioned by the Prime Minister (after intense pressure from the opposition benches and his own MPs), and not the competent environmental authority, speaks volumes about how much Mepa is proactive in the field of environmental health.

Mepa has not only been completely reactive in the past 12 years but also technically unprepared to carry out the required scientific analysis professionally. For instance, in August 2009, when Fgura residents were complaining, it took Mepa around two weeks to acquire the required materials from the authority’s suppliers, during which period the dust fallout problem had temporarily abated and thus the dust sampling process could not be undertaken.

The truth is that the 1999 Stacey Report had already concluded that “when the prevailing winds were westerly, concentrations of vanadium, nickel and sulphur were detected in the Fgura dust, suggesting that the emissions from the power station were having an effect on local deposited dust”.

Another important issue is that relating to effective mitigation measures or lack of them. The black dust report explains that the electrostatic precipitators that were originally fitted on boilers 6, 7 and 8 at Marsa power station at the beginning of the 1990s but then taken out of service and modified due to the use of a different type of fuel, were put back in service only in January 2000 and then turned off again during 2009.

The legitimate question follows: Why? Why on earth were the precipitators left ‘out of service’ for all that time? Was it a question of cutting costs at the expense of public health? Was it a question of lack of planning of what to do with the resulting fly ash? Is this acceptable for a country which is aspiring to be a successful EU member?

In 2007, a surge of complaints from the residents of the Fgura area led Mepa officials to study the black dust samples, and again all evidence pointed towards the Marsa power station as the most likely source of black dust. Yet it is only in 2011 that the Prime Minister publicly accepted the reality that the power station is the source of this unhealthy phenomenon.

I am using the term ‘unhealthy’ purposely. The black dust report explains that the correlation, if any, between ambient levels of particulate matter and black dust ‘fallout’ has not yet been established and this is something that urgently needs to be done.

We are in a situation where Mepa drew up studies about the black dust and separately undertook air-monitoring procedures according to EU regulations. However, as yet, Mepa has failed to study the relationship between the black dust and air quality.

I have been advised by leading public health experts that fine particles play a dominant role in impacting human health and that separate studies undertaken in 2007 and 2009 show a correlation between the Marsa power station, its fly ash and the presence of harmful vanadium and nickel in the Fgura area.

The government and Mepa have repeatedly failed to safeguard the quality of life of Fgura residents in this 12-year-long saga, leading us to wonder what will happen to the southern part of the island when the Delimara extension, which will run on heavy fuel oil, starts functioning.

If the authorities do not want us to keep on feeling blue on matters of black concerns, they must act fast and put public health at the top of their list of priorities.

owen@owenbonnici.com

Dr Bonnici is a Labour MP.