News • 27 April 2003

Government mum about new landfill

Julian Manduca

The Maghtab landfill was the talk of the town until a few months ago when the only subject of acceptable discussion became the EU and the elections.

In the project description statement for a new landfill, while it was admitted that no site in Malta was suitable in all respects, two sites were identified as being able to accommodate all the facilities required given Malta’s waste management requirements.

A site at Ghallis near the present Maghtab landfill was identified: "based on a scheme involving the progressive excavation, removal and storage of usable stone beneath the site and exploitation of the void space thereby created for the landfilling of wastes."

Another favoured site was at Benghisa (tal-Harrub) and this was "based on a land raise scheme without any excavation."

Environmental NGOs objected to the short listing and a decision was taken to study all potential sites in the Environment Impact Assessment to decide on the new landfill site.

Former environment Minister Francis Zammit Dimech did not answer questions put to him about the new landfill.

The PN in government had promised that the Maghtab and Qortin dumps will be closed in 2004, and the Labour Party made the promise to close the dumps one year and nine months after being elected, although in its pact with the nation the time frame was removed.

In its pre-election propaganda the PN claimed that the MLP will not close the dumps, stating that "the Maghtab mountain will continue to grow," should Labour be elected, but with the PN in government progress has not been exactly ground shaking.

The head of Progett Skart, Ing. Christopher Ciantar told MaltaToday, the landfill requires a plan spreading over a number of initiatives “all of which are currently being implemented.

"Apart from the selection of the preferred site and the subsequent detailed designs, the landfill also depends on a number of interrelated measures, including policy and legislative, technical and operation, institutional, etc."

Ciantar said plans for a new landfill were progressing according to plan: "Work is progressing as planned, such that the phasing down of operations on Maghtab and Qortin may progress until the eventual closure, as well as the remediation and restoration of these sites during 2004 and beyond."