Environmental groups call for better protection of human life and biodiversity

Malta’s environmental NGOs have accused MEPA of ignoring its own policies after its environment planning committed granted a full development permit for a new, large-scale cow farm in Maghtab that will be taking up no less than 4,600 square metres of fresh agricultural land.

The groups – Ramblers Association, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Malta Organic Agriculture Movement and Friends of the Earth (Malta), GAIA, Maghtab Residents Association – said that the grant of the permit indicated that MEPA was giving priority to economic activity instead to human life and biodiversity.

“In an effort to justify its outrageous actions without contradicting its previous decision to grant the 2008 outline permit for this farm, MEPA chooses to disempower the affected residents with the absurd claim that the ‘residential units within the Maghtab area are mostly agricultural buildings converted for habitation and are sparsely spread among the existing operational farms’,” the groups said.

“This statement is not only incorrect but it also ignores the fact that the Maghtab population counts no less than 230 residents, with eight of the families living within a distance of less than 70 metres from the development. Most of these households include women of childbearing age and a number of children whom department of public health considers to be vulnerable to risk.”

MEPA was accused by the eNGOs of shifting the responsibility of this damaging decision on to the external consultations held with the various ‘competent authorities’. “These same authorities have made very dubious statements during the ongoing appeal against the outline permit granted in 2008.”

The NGOs said that given the abundance of abandoned and abused farms, large scale confined animal feeding operations should be accommodated on these disturbed sites, leaving green-field sites for the cultivation of agricultural products.

“This would not only respect the laws of Malta and the regulations governing such developments, but also serve to distance existing residences from the proven risks of contamination from industrial farms.”

The groups said Maghtab had suffered extensively over the years on account of the landfill that has continued to grow unabatedly to the detriment of the surrounding communities of Maghtab, Bahar ic-Caghaq, Salini, Naxxar, Gharghur and Qawra. 

Maghtab has also has had to put up with the granting of several permits for “large scale confined animal feeding operations”, most of which are no longer in operation leading to an area that is littered with derelict farms that have either been abandoned or are now abusive because they carry out activities other than those permitted.

Such degradation was already identified in the 2006 local plans which said that due to these mixed and conflicting uses and the disorganised character of this settlement, Maghtab was affected by a fall in rural quality and amenity.