The Malta Developers Association has urged the government to urgently identify an area for land reclamation in view of the ongoing construction waste crisis.

Earlier this week, one of two quarries that are currently receiving construction waste drastically increased its prices, with the MDA warning that this could result in higher property prices.

The Environment and Resources Authority last year issued permits to ten quarries to receive construction waste, but only two are currently operational.

The issue of a lack of space where to dump construction waste has been brought up on numerous occasions, even in view of the upcoming mega projects at St George’s Bay and the planned Malta-Gozo tunnel.

In a statement, MDA said it must once again draw the attention of the authorities to the need for immediate action in relation to the serious problem of the lack of facilities for the disposal of construction waste.

“Very little space is now available. This consists of some two unfilled quarries that have made the operators of these sites enjoy a captive market in which demand heavily exceeds supply. This situation has hit all contractors who cannot find a solution for the problem and face a steep rise in costs for waste disposal. Apart from the fact that this increase in costs will be reflected in an increase in building costs, the situation will soon lead to a serious scarcity of disposal sites,” the association said.

“Meanwhile applicants for permits to use their property for construction waste disposal have been facing excessive bureaucratic procedures lasting many months to arrive at an acceptable solution to issues raised by the state authorities concerned.”

“Identifying an area of the sea where land reclamation is acceptable from an environmental point of view with the aim of utilising the available amounts of construction waste for this purpose has also become an urgent matter,” MDA said.