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Karl Schembri
First it was a Labour thug and his pigs, now the ducks – the occupants of Fort Delimara are far from the heritage stuff befitting the historical fort built by the British in 1888, but despite the site’s importance, it has been serving as a duck compound for the last seven months and it seems doomed to remain so.
Since the global outbreak of avian flu, government could find no better site than this one to house wild ducks that were roaming in bays and to isolate them from migratory birds which may be infected. It was supposed to be a temporary measure, but it is one of those cases where temporary loses its meanings.
From around 280 collected since last February, there are still around 250 ducks living there according to the acting director of the government’s Veterinary Services Department, Mireille Vella. The ducks who died there were “normal mortality cases”, she said, while others still roaming freely have been tagged and identified.
“We are continuously assessing the situation,” Dr Vella said, adding that there were still no timeframes set for their eviction. “We have to play by ear, especially in assessing other outbreaks abroad. It’s one thing to have an outbreak in Sweden, it’s quite another if it’s in Sicily.”
The surprise decision announced last February meant that Heritage Malta’s plans to restore the fort and include it in a fortifications heritage trail were totally disrupted, just after Labour thug Edwin Bartolo, known as Il-Qahbu, who used the fort as a pig sty with Mintoff’s blessing, was evicted with his animals for a compensation of Lm25,000.
The head of Heritage Malta, Mario Tabone, had said the idea was surreal.
“After serving as a pigsty, now the birds,” Tabone had said. “I was told there was no other place that was as isolated from residences and farms to keep these ducks. I couldn’t do much when faced with this problem. It’s a serious issue of public health, which comes before anything else.”
The fort was one of a ring of forts and batteries protecting Marsaxlokk harbour, but it was abandoned after the departure of the British and then leased by Mintoff’s government to Bartolo, who used it to raise pigs for 15 years.
Despite the damage by the pig breeder, the fort remains in relatively good condition, and still retains four of its original fourteen 38-ton Victorian cannons.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
Links:
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/02/19/t17.html
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/02/12/t4.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Delimara
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