Various requests for an independent audit of the Marsa incinerator’s operations have been ignored over the last two years, and the government should urgently hold such an audit, Labour MP Leo Brincat, party spokesman for the environment, said.

The incinerator’s operations have totally collapsed, he added, with another days long stoppage after less than four days of operations since the last repairs were made. The repairs have nothing to do with scheduled maintenance works, Mr Brincat said.

The resources ministry replied it was no discovery to know that the incinerator was stopped on Tuesday for a technical inspection, so much so that the WasteServ website noted that the incinerator was not operating.

Mr Brincat is taking up a technical matter relating to the incinerator because he could no longer claim that it was creating a negative environmental impact, as he had for long been alleging.

The incinerator, the ministry added, operates according to European standards imposed also by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. A technical inspection had confirmed that there is damage in a small part of the refractory, which during operations suffers extremely high temperaturs of between 800 and 1,000 degrees Celsius. The plant is at present cooling so that the refractory can be repaired.