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Julian Manduca
Although the right to information about the environment is guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention which has been ratified by Malta, those living and recreating in the Msida-Guardamangia-Pietà area are being left in the dark as to when the malfunctioning hospital incinerator is to be shut down.
The government has been promising to do so for the last eight years, but does not seem to have a definite time-plan for new equipment to be installed, and put the old one at St Luke’s Hospital to rest.
The incinerator, which bellows black smoke, is in breach of Malta’s Clean Air Act and an EU directive every day of the year, but despite complaints from residents has not be removed or upgraded.
A tender process to replace it broke down after MaltaToday revealed that many of the high officials in the supplying company, US based Sanitec, had ended up in prison. A new tender process started about 10 months ago and 23 companies have shown interest, but the pre-qualification stage has not yet been completed.
The Finance Ministry has indicated that seven companies have been short-listed but would not state which, because “the pre-qualification process is in the final stages.” The ministry would not say when the pre-qualification stage will be completed.
Asked for a time-frame as to when residents can be relieved of their long-standing suffering, the ministry told MaltaToday that “the time-frame depends on when the tender documents are finalised and submitted to the short-listed candidates.”
This means the length of time that it takes those that are responsible for preparing the tender documents to get their work done will determine how long residents will have to wait.
Sanitec’s Malta partners Sarrebico that was not able to deliver the selected equipment because of its US partner’s trouble was among the applicants once again this time round.
julian@newsworksltd.com
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