For three consecutive days, a trail of trucks loaded with rubble congested the country roads between the Siggiewi bypass and Qrendi to tip construction waste into an overfilled quarry that is located between Qrendi and Mqabba, Partit Demokratiku said in a statement.

Construction waste – and possibly soil – have been tipped to an extent that the rubble has reached a second tier and is well above 17 metres height from ground level. Soon, a third tier will have to commence unless the quarry space is extended into surrounding fields. The skyline has been obliterated and the villages of Qrendi and Mqabba are no longer visible from either end.

Time and time again, there were many media reports about this illegality. The irony is that the PA has issued so many enforcement notices that the limit of notices that can be sent has been reached. And the impunity goes on regardless. It is now more commercially viable to tip illegally in an unused quarry rather than unload into legal ones.

Partit Demokratiku has brought these continuous goings-on to the attention of the authorities throughout 2017 and 2018 and yet, the ERA seems to have remained non-reactive.

It is a fact that construction waste has paralyzed the island and we will soon reach a saturation point when our quarries will all be filled.

PD asks: What are the long term plans regarding the dumping of construction waste? Although the government appears to have abandoned the idea of land reclamation, is it going to have to introduce the concept because we’re soon running out of quarry space?

What exactly is being planned?