I refer to Caroline Muscat's report on the deplorable state of dairy farms, particularly those situated in the Magħtab area (The Sunday Times, October 18).
My complaint is related to a particular family-run dairy farm that has accommodated hundreds of cows, at least, for the past 40 years.
During this time I have become familiar with the farm as I have designed, built and administered a condominium in its vicinity in the San Ġwann area. The farm is not in the middle of nowhere, as there are luxury villas on its north side.
Since 1969, the farm consisted chiefly of a number of roughly-built sheds, roofed over with rusted corrugated metal sheets, serving as the only means of protecting the cattle from the elements.
Close by lies the head of beautiful Wied Għomor, part of which has served this farm as a dumping site for its manure, with the resulting pollution of the aquifer underlying the valley, where a few hundred metres away, a small room owned by the Water Services Corporation protects a borehole that leads down to the underlying aquifer and/or water table.
For 40 long years, the cattle at this farm has been left to roam and wade daily in their own urine and faeces, in uncovered areas enclosed by rubble walls, from where rodents, flies and smells reached out systematically to the condominium referred to and the nearby villas.
About 18 months ago this dairy farm was thoroughly upgraded, presumably to conform with EU hygiene regulations, obviously with a view of improving efficiency and quality of produce, in compliance with the required standards.
However, ironically, immediately after the farm's upgrading, the number of flies and the intensity of the acrid stench reaching the condominium and the nearby villas increased enormously.
Illogical as this may sound, this is a sacrosanct fact. Surely there must be a reason for the compounding of such an inconvenience, despite the farm's upgrading.
Considering the complete disappearance of the pool of manure down in the valley, and the increase in the number of cows, what has increased the amount of flies and the level of the stench?
On behalf of the farm's neighbours I appeal to the authorities concerned to check that this dairy farm has been upgraded in accordance to the latest EU hygiene regulations, and that it is being run in conformity with the relevant sanitary law.