|
James Debono
“The building industry is essential to the economy of our sister island,” reads a report from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s directorate, which is recommending the sanctioning and the extension of an illegal quarry next to a candidate World Heritage Site – the Dwejra national park, in Gozo.
On Thursday the MEPA board approved a quarry covering 13,786 square metres, and lying outside the development zone.
The quarry had been subject to an enforcement order since 1998. It lies 250 metres outside the San Lawrenz village outskirts, in Gozo, on a spur straddling the valleys of Wied Merell and Wied Ghorof.
The boundaries of the Dwejra National Park have not yet been designated, so MEPA could only rely on “tentative boundaries” from the draft Gozo and Comino Local Plan to conclude that the application is immediately outside the northern boundary of the development.
The case officer report, in very clear terms, underlines the power of the construction industry. “The principle justification for the sanctioning and the extension of this quarry lies in the need to ensure an adequate and steady supply of dimension stone to the construction industry in Gozo.”
The report also warns that if the application is refused the quarry operator will have no option but to close down the gates and therefore the area would remain derelict with the consequence of illegal dumping.
MEPA’s directorate chose to ignore the minerals directorate recommendation for an outright refusal given the national park’s candidature as a World Heritage Site.
The Malta Resources Authority objected on account of the resulting impact on the surface water course.
The site also includes a variety of species, some of which are of high ecological importance. One endemic species, Mathiola Incona, popularly known as ‘gizi ta’ Malta’, grows on quarry debris on the site. MEPA is recommending the transplantation of the rare and endemic species to another site.
During the meeting none of the MEPA board members said a word on the ethical implications of sanctioning a blatant illegality.
Yet board members spent two hours discussing the developer’s objections to the bank guarantees and mitigation measures proposed by MEPA.
The developer was exonerated from presenting a bank guarantee to restore a field room identified for protection by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, as “it did not belong to him.” The board agreed to group together three bank guarantees totalling Lm8,000.
MEPA board member on developer’s payroll again
MEPA board member Louis F Cassar was one the experts commissioned by the developer to conduct the environment impact assessment on the application. Cassar abstains from participating in MEPA board meetings which take decisions over projects in which he was engaged as an independent consultant by the developer. Cassar has already been engaged as an independent consultant by developers in at least five other cases: Ta’ Cenc, Xaghra l-Hamra, MIDI and Ulysses Lodge in Ramla Bay. The EIA was co-ordinated by ADI a company owned by former MEPA official Adrian Mallia and Kevin Morris.
|
