Your letters
Distorting
the truth
From
Julian Manduca
Friends of the EarthMaltaToday’s front page article ‘Dioxins
and furans in our backyard’ (1 July 2001) should have caused
eyebrows to raise not because of the news about the dioxins and
furans that everybody knows are emitted from Maghtab, but more so
because of the inherent bias in what purports to be a news story.
MaltaToday’s
environmental correspondent, whoever that is, quotes a foreign
expert on waste management without telling us who this is. The
anonymity of the expert does not add credence to her or his views
and it is easier for the general public to ignore statements that
are unattributed, but the faults in the article do not stop there.
The ‘expert’ says "Malta does not have the economies
of scale and culture to attain a high level of sustainable recycling".
The experts goes on to say that: "all this talk of the 3Rs
by Greenpeace is nothing more than clichés." Coming
from someone who calls herself or himself a waste management expert,
these are choice words.
Moviment
ghall-Ambjent, Friends of the Earth (Malta) calls on the expert
to explain, with reference to Malta’s waste management situation,
exactly why the 3Rs are clichés. Why exactly is the idea
of waste reduction or re-use a cliché?
How is Malta
to comply with EU directives, particularly those on packaging
waste, if it does not have a plan for recycling? Any waste management
plan for Malta is bound to include the composting of organic waste
for the production of high quality compost, which the Maltese
Islands’ soil sorely needs. Is that not recycling?
Given that
about 85% of our waste is from construction and demolition, 60%
of the remainder is compostable and Malta must reach certain recycling
targets, what exactly does the expert envisage will be incinerated?
Friends of
the Earth in the UK has prepared a study to show that recycling
low volumes of waste is still worthwhile and a much better environmental
and economic option than incineration, which is extremely expensive.
FoE Malta calls on the expert quoted in MaltaToday to explain
– in a scientific manner – why exactly Malta needs an
incinerator.
While MaltaToday’s article tries to give the impression that
Malta will opt for either a landfill, or an incinerator everyone
that knows anything about Malta’s waste management situation
will tell you that Malta will need a new landfill whether or not
we also have an incinerator.
While the
MaltaToday article seem to blame Maghtab on those that oppose
incineration, nothing could be further from the truth. NGOs in
Malta have been pushing the authorities to take their waste management
responsibilities seriously for ages and if our advice was followed
we certainly would not be in the mess we are in today. Indeed
FoE Malta can only conclude that the MaltaToday article is so
biased that whoever its environmental correspondent is, must have
an ulterior motive for distorting the truth. We would be very
interested to know what that is.Editorial note:
Mr Manduca
does not have a patent over the truth or the environment. He believes
that all solutions are those proposed by him and a few others.
And worse still, he proposes steps that are not costed, he fails
to assess implementation dates, the social impact, cultural trends
and political will.
Just because
one does not wholly agree with Mr Manduca does not mean that one
has an ulterior motive or is not conscious about the environment.
Tuna
penning, the threat
From Dunstan
Hamilton, ECO The Ecological Society.
ECO, The Malta Ecological Foundation expresses its disapproval and
strong concern over the development permit granted by the Development
Control Commission on Thursday 5 July. 2001 in respect of the application
by Malta Mariculture Ltd to substitute part of the sea bream being
bred on its Comino fish farm with tuna.
ECO notes
that the Planning Directorate had advised the Board of the Planning
Authority to reject another tuna penning application by Azzopardi
Fisheries on the grounds that applicants had a long history of
lack of compliance with the conditions imposed on them by the
Planning Authority. Whilst approving such a stand on the Authority's
part, ECO strongly queries why the same line was not taken in
respect of Malta Mariculture Ltd, which also seems guilty of two
instances of serious lack of compliance. The landscaping conditions
imposed on Malta Mariculture Ltd by the original planning permit
no. 4052/92 were not adhered to, and an enforcement notice was
thus issued. Moreover, it seems that certain data concerning water
quality and sediment quality, as well as a benthic survey of the
site, both of which were important requisites for the grant of
the original permit, have still not been adhered to.
ECO is thus
concerned that the PA has taken this lax approach with regard
to two permit infringements which have been in existence for several
years (whilst the infringement by Azzopardi Fisheries dates back
merely to the 18th of May 2000, which is the date of issue of
its permit). The granting of the permit to Malta Mariculture Ltd
indicates a lack of uniformity in the standards applied by the
PA in vetting such applications. The issue of tuna penning is
ecologically a sensitive one due to its potential negative impact
on marine ecology and biodiversity.
Deprived
of a service
From Philip Mifsud, Fgura
The external celebrations held by each parish at week ends are finding
the co-operation of local councils.
In many towns
and villages the committees responsible for the external celebrations
are finding great help from the local councils for the cleaning
and the upkeep of the main squares and high streets.
This year
for the celebrations of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
held in the first week July the local council decided to present
a gift to the families of Fgura.
The council
decided to withdraw the service provided by ‘skips’.
The reason given by the council was that the service of skips
was being abused.
Instead of
controlling the abusers the council chose the easy way out.
The large
number of families who did make good use of the skips are now
deprived of this important service.
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