Dr Sant paid a visit to the site yesterday with an MLP delegation and said: “At the end of the day you cannot call a landfill temporary. If you create a dump, you create a dump. You cannot later pretend it never existed.”
Dr Sant said several organisations and local councils had opposed plans to create landfills in two disused quarries. “Among others, we had the Siggiewi, Mqabba and Qrendi councils, Friends of the Earth, Din l-Art Helwa, Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna and many more,” he said.
Dr Sant said that in relation to waste disposal, the country was in limbo. “The government has decided to postpone the implementation of plans to use these two sites. Maybe they are waiting for the 12 June European Parliament and local council elections to go through, like they are doing with other things such as implementing new taxes and pushing prices up,” said Dr Sant.
He said that waste was being dumped at the temporary storage facility of Ta’ Zwejra, which is on Maghtab’s doorstep.
“We have already received complaints from residents about the smells and fumes which are emanating from the dump,” he said.
Dr Sant also said that no decent impact assessment study had been made before taking the decision to use the site. “We are going to store unseparated rubbish there for three years.
Can you imagine the amount of methane gas that will be given off?” he asked rhetorically.
Dr Sant said methane was a potential explosive.
His conclusion was that the Ta Zwejra site cause harm to the environment in both the long and short term. Asked to explain the MLP’s position on the issue, Dr Sant said: “Simple, Maghtab has been there for years. Could it not have remained open one more year or longer? Then we could have carried out a proper study to find an ideal place to have an engineered landfill.”
He said waste needed to be separated and in the interim period before a site was identified, the process could be fine tuned.
“That way we could have a proper waste separation system and a proper engineered landfill.”
Dr Sant joked with the media and said he hoped they had all enjoyed the morning’s hike from Hagar Qim to Mnajdra.