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Kurt Sansone
Talk at the village grocer in Marsaskala revolves around two intertwined issues: the eco-tax on plastic bags and Government’s plans to build an even bigger waste facility in the locality to replace the Sant Antnin recycling plant.
At the cheese counter a woman laments she cannot find biodegradable bags and argues that if plastic was so bad for people’s health than Government should have banned it altogether. She then puts the cheese and ham in the clothe bag and the shop assistant behind the delicatessen counter jokes about the situation: “They will soon ask us whether we are biodegradable when we die.”
At another corner two women rant and rave about the proposed waste facility. Again they cannot understand why Government wants to build the new plant in the midst of their community given Sant Antnin will be totally demolished. “He (Government) should build it somewhere else,” the woman says shaking her head in disapproval.
Opposition to the planned waste recycling facility in Marsaskala cuts across political belief and social class. The community is irked by the decision to more than double the amount of waste that will eventually be recycled in the area. Nobody bothers to remember that Government is promising a modern efficient plant much different from the Sant Antnin recycling facility. Promises count nothing in Marsaskala.
Mayor Charlot Mifsud says that residents have been suffering the consequences of the Sant Antnin recycling plant for over 10 years. “We have had 10 years of promises from various Government ministers that the Sant Antnin facility will be upgraded to remove the inconvenience for residents. None of these promises materialised,” he laments.
“Now that Sant Antnin is going to be demolished to make way for another facility, it might as well be constructed somewhere else,” Mifsud tells MaltaToday.
Marsaskala is to hold a referendum on the issue sometime in the near future but meanwhile efforts to oppose the plant are disjointed. Despite the creation of an action committee by the local council to co-ordinate the opposition to the facility, two separate judicial protests have been filed in Court by various residents.
On Friday a group of 41 residents represented by former local councillor Chris Agius filed a protest in Court warning Government and WasteServ that they will be kept responsible for any damages the residents may suffer in the future if the waste facility goes ahead as planned.
Representatives of the Nationalist Party on the Marsaskala local council have meanwhile created a separate committee to disseminate “correct information” on the new waste facility. PN councillors have as yet refused to give their personal views on the issue and argue that residents are not being given enough information on the new facility and its modern safety measures.
Environment Minister George Pullicino met Marsaskala residents for the first time last week. The heated meeting under the tents at the mouth of the Maghluq valley was a symptom of the pent up frustration residents have been accumulating over the years.
In all probability Government will still go ahead with its plans to construct the new waste facility in Marsaskala. It will face similar music from residents of other areas if the plant is to be constructed elsewhere.
The biggest issue at stake is credibility. Marsaskala residents do not trust Government in its commitment to deliver a serious modern facility and this is a malaise runs through the Maltese population.
“I will not say where the waste facility should be constructed, that is not my competence,” Mayor Mifsud tells MaltaToday. “Other zones far away from residential areas should be studied,” he insists.
Finding an alternative site will be Minister Pullicino’s problem it seems but as things stand irking one community may be too much for Government to study alternatives.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
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