The Marsascala plant is here to stay, Environment Minister Leo Brincat tells Kurt Sansone in the wake of an experts’ report.
[attach id=267270 size="medium"]Environment Minister Leo Brincat. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier[/attach]
Why was there the need for yet another investigation?
The original brief given to the team led by Edward Mallia was to look at the environmental health aspect. However, the team asked to widen the brief to include the waste-to-energy aspect and see whether the plant was achieving its targets and other risk management issues.
The report makes it very clear that Sant’Antnin is a crucial cog in the waste infrastructure...
It was always meant to be like that. This is why I would not like to give the impression that, just because Wasteserv was flawed due to bad governance, the recycling plant is something we could do without.
This may disappoint some Marsascala residents, who may have harboured the belief this plant will be removed from their locality.
The Labour Party in opposition and in government never hinted in this direction.
Even when we discussed this issue in opposition we used to make it conditional that we will discuss all problems with the understanding that there will be no calls for the dismantling of the plant.
The Labour Party in opposition had taken up residents’ complaints even at an EU level. Can residents put their mind at rest now?
We have had people trying to massage public opinion to make them believe the plant only had a nuisance value.
As the report points out, certain hindrances were inevitable given the location itself. To relocate a plant that cost millions of euros is simply not on.
We will do everything that is doable within today’s realities. We will be giving environmental health issues top priority.
You are now the person calling the shots. What will you do differently?
People thought we were embarking on a witch-hunt with all the reports that were commissioned but this was not the case. I never interfered in the process and insisted the authors draw up recommendations.
This report (Sant’Antnin) has a number of recommendations and now it is up to the new board to evaluate them and prioritise them.
Your counterpart in Opposition has described you as being in limbo on waste. He described the recently published waste management issue paper as a tissue paper. Is this just a government of reports and when will we see the beef?
At the latest, before August 15, any commissioned reports on Wasteserv and waste will be concluded and from then on our task will not be one of gloating on reports but implementing recommendations.
This is not a sign of a Government hitting the ground running.
In the waste sector the situation was far worse than what we thought it would be.
It would not have made sense to implement measures when we were not sure whether we had clay or solid foundations.