Environment Authority calls for limits on fireworks factories in countryside

A policy facilitating the approval of ODZ fireworks factories approved in 2014 on the basis of recommendations made by a committee chaired by Labour MP Michael Falzon is being questioned by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) which is now calling for additional safeguards.

According to ERA proposals for new fireworks factories should be backed by sound site-selection studies and feasibility studies including the “establishment of a ceiling for the number of traditional fireworks factories that should be reasonably accommodated in the countryside.” 

ERA made these comments in a report in which it objected to a new fireworks factory in Ta’ Geriska in Gharb, Gozo. 

Fireworks have claimed over 100 lives over the past century and most fatalities happen in factory explosions. 

The new policy excludes the development of new factories in level 1 or level 2 sites of ecological importance but allows the development of new fireworks factories on “dry” agricultural land whenever such proposals have a prior clearance by an ad hoc technical committee which is responsible for safety and technical aspects. 

The policy does not set any limit on the number of fireworks factories in the Maltese countryside and does not oblige developers to conduct a site selection exercise.

A brand new fireworks factory in an area predominantly characterised by agricultural land and coastal cliff areas in Gharb in Gozo is deemed objectionable by the Environment and Resources Authority. The proposal already has the clearance of the technical committee.

“There is considerable concern as regards to the proposed conversion of a pristine rural site into a fully fledged fireworks factory covering circa 5000 square meters”. The development is deemed to be “out of context with the surrounding landscape, the natural setting and the agricultural and ecological value of the site”. 

ERA also called for studies showing whether the proposed factory is for the making of fireworks for local summer festas. This study should include a breakdown of the production and usage of other fireworks factories-including one which was approved a few months ago, during the local festas. Last year the  PA had already approved an application to develop a fireworks factory in Wied ir-Raghab in Gharb that had already been rejected in 2012,. The application was approved according to the policy regulating the development of fireworks factories approved in 2014.