Updated | Mepa says St Paul’s Bay Local Council should take responsibility

After the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) stopped the St Paul’s Bay local council from the illegal dumping of sludge into the Qawra bay yesterday, the St Paul Bay’s local council said they were only doing what MEPA told them to do.

Reacting to this afternoon’s conference, Mepa issued a statement this afternoon to confirm that no authorisation was given to the St Paul’s Bay Local Council to dump the sand and other objects removed from the slipway.

“Instead of organising a press conference to try to justify actions or shift the blame, the St Paul’s Bay local council should take the honourable way and make a public apology for its mistake in dumping the sand and other material without having the necessary clearance from the Authority,” Mepa said.     

Mepa said the local council was  not authorised to carry out this dumping activity which on its own initiative decided to dump the sand and other material close to a popular bathing area in Qawra.

The Authority added that in email correspondence dated 1 August 2012, Mepa informed the local council it found no objection only for the sand to be removed from around the slipway.

However, it requested the local council to notify it with the maximum volume of sand it intended to remove so Mepa could assess the best way forward regarding the dumping or deposition activity. “This information was not forthcoming.” 

St Paul’s Bay mayor Mario Salerno presented email correspondence with MEPA showing that the local council was in fact following orders given by MEPA to dump sand back into the sea just a few metres away from where it was originally removed.

“Despite our protests and going against original proposals made by us with the expert help of acting executive secretary George Abdilla to put the removed sand somewhere on land, Mepa rejected our proposals and told us to put it back in the sea,” Salerno said.

Salerno said that the sand, clay and rocks were removed from the slipway to help fishermen lower their boats into the water, which could not be done before because cars would get stuck in the sludge.

“There were three fishermen just now saying that today was the first time they had used the slipway successfully. We heard their complaints and we removed the sand for them,” Salerno said.

The mayor said that proposals had been made to place the sand at a temporary location on-land before eventually placing it on beaches where people were requesting sand.

“Our proposals were refused and MEPA told us verbatim that we had two locations to choose from just metres away from the area the sand was removed from. We protested but we did what they said, and they told us off because it might be damaging the area,” Salerno said.

MEPA yesterday condemned the local council for proceeding with such an activity without necessary authorisation and required monitoring.

George Abdilla showed an email sent by himself to MEPA claiming that works were to begin the next day.

“MEPA were supposed to send an inspector to monitor the works, but they didn’t even reply,” Abdilla said, admitting they went ahead with the works without an inspector confirming MEPA’s claims that it was not monitoring the activity, but not confirmed that the authority had not been informed.

“It is unfair that the local council is being criticised by MEPA. The onus was on them. It is almost as though they are trying to turn the residents against us despite our prudency,” Salerno said.

Abdilla explained that MEPA finally accepted the proposal to move the sand to an undisclosed location on land. “We will not reveal the location to avoid people abusing the area by dumping illegal waste.”

An Qawra resident who was present for the press conference claimed that it was not true that annual clean-ups of the slipway were carried out by the council. “This is the first time it ever happened,” the resident told MaltaToday. “It was supposed to help us let our boats down in the water without getting stuck... it didn’t work. Our tyres still get stuck.”