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James Debono
A year after the Prime Minister’s announcement that the government is considering the development of an artificial island composed entirely of waste, nothing much has happened except for a tender for yet another study to determine the best site for this controversial project.
In the meantime the construction waste time-bomb is ticking louder. With construction waste jumping from 1.2 million tonnes in 2000 to more than “approximately” 2 million tonnes in 2005, disused quarries are only expected by MEPA to last until 2011.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s estimates are based on current levels of waste disposal.
Malta is well below targets specified in the 2001 Waste Management Plan, which specifies a reduction of 20 per cent from the construction waste levels of 2000 by the end of 2005. This target amount of construction waste for 2005 was 960,000 tonnes.
But instead of a 20 per cent reduction, waste levels have increased by 67 per cent since 2000.
More waste was disposed in the last two years than in any year since 1996, when according to statistics published by the National Office of Statistics, the maximum amount of construction waste never topped the 1.5 million tonne mark.
The government is currently revising the waste management plan. But the committee appointed to present a report on the revision of this plan has not yet delivered, more than a year and a half after its appointment.
Ever since disused private quarries started absorbing construction waste, figures on the amount of construction waste have remained a mystery.
In a parliamentary question last month, Environment Minister George Pullicino said that 1,185,174 tonnes were deposited in sites for construction waste in 2005.
Yet according to MEPA, the total amount of waste deposited in disused quarries amounted to “approximately 2,000,000 tonnes.”
While the ministry’s statistics were based on waste deposited at sites administered by Wasteserv, MEPA’s “approximate” estimate takes 5 disused private quarries into account.
This means these 5 private quarries have taken almost 1 million tonnes of waste.
These privately-owned quarries operate in line with permits issued by MEPA. There are no standard guidelines for the management of these landfills, as permits are case specific.
Before 2005, the government used to subsidise the disposal of construction and demolition waste at the sites managed by Wasteserv by as much as 83 cents per tonne.
But as from the beginning of 2005, anyone depositing waste at sites run by Wasteserv had to pay the government the full sum of Lm1.18 per tonne for its disposal and recycling.
Following the introduction of these tariffs, contractors started to shift towards private quarries.
In the meantime, a year following the Prime Minister’s announcement that the government is considering the feasibility of artificial islands created from waste, MEPA is still evaluating submissions for a tender aimed at choosing the ideal site.
A project identification exercise carried out in 2004 identified a number of sites which could be suitable for land reclamation.
The Prime Minister had announced the government’s intention to develop an artificial island concurrently with another controversial proposal, the Xaghra l-Hamra golf course.
More than a year later both projects are awaiting the results of scientific studies.
According to MEPA the choice of the land reclamation sites is subject to additional environmental information and feasibility considerations.
In fact a call for tenders was published for filling this “information gap” and for carrying out a feasibility study on two particular sites, one in the north east opposite Bahar ic-Caghaq and another in the south east.
MEPA is currently evaluating the submissions received following the publication of this call for tenders.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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