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James Debono
The thousands of car batteries discarded in a mysterious rubbish dump right next to the Valletta Road factories in Luqa are destined for export to Austria, MaltaToday has learned.
In December, this newspaper had published photos of the dump, sited next to a number of pharmaceutical and food production companies.
Luqa mayor John Schembri first reported this battery dump to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in September 2005; since then, the rubbish dump has continued to expand.
More than a year later, a MEPA spokesperson told MaltaToday that MEPA could not act against the owner of the dump because he is in possession of a police license to operate a scrapyard. The licence pre-dates the creation of the Planning Authority in 1992.
But following MaltaToday’s report, MEPA has come to an agreement with the owner of the dump to remove this environmental hazard from the vicinity.
In fact MEPA has now issued a permit to enable him to export these batteries.
However, the exportation has been delayed by a bureaucratic hiccup, as the Slovenian authorities have not yet issued the necessary clearance for the transit of the battery cargo.
Factory owners are concerned that the rubbish dump could expose them to the risk of contamination if the dump catches fire.
Links: http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/12/10/t11.html
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt |
