The NSO said that during 2002, total environmental protection expenditure incurred by all 68 local councils increased from Lm2,832,314 in 2001 to Lm2,846,838 in 2002.

Increases were registered in bulky refuse collection, cleaning services, the maintenance of the countryside, parks and gardens and road and street cleaning.

The NSO noted that expenditure on public conveniences, rain water drains, refuse collection, verges and soft areas, waste disposal and the hiring of skips all registered decreases.

Of the Lm2.6 million spent by councils in 2002, the statistics show that Lm0.9 million was directed towards refuse collection, Lm0.8 million was spent on road and street cleaning and Lm0.3 million on the maintenance of parks and gardens. Relatively less was spent on all other categories, with waste disposal and rain water drains attracting only 0.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent of total expenditure respectively.

An increase of Lm34,611 was registered in overall expenditure incurred by Maltese local councils over the previous year.

Environmental protection in Gozo was mostly directed towards refuse collection – 39.8 per cent of the total amount spent in 2002 was invested in this sector, said the NSO. Street cleaning and public conveniences together accounted Lm0.09 million.

No expenditure was registered on cleaning services and on rain water drains in Gozo.

The category which attracted least expenditure was verges and soft areas, with only Lm1,413 spent in 2002.

It is to be noted that Gozitan local councils spent less on environmental protection in 2002 compared with 2001. In fact, expenditure fell by Lm20,087 to Lm261,244.

Figures published by the NSO show that the Northern Harbour district is the one which benefits most from environmental protection expenditure, followed by the Southern Harbour district.

The statistics also show that virtually all the money spent by local councils on environmental protection expenditure was directed towards waste management and protection of biodiversity and landscape.