On Thursday, this newspaper reported how Public Cleansing Services Department workers were called to recover an entire bedroom suite – bed, wardrobe, dressing-table and two bed-side tables – from Spencer Hill in Marsa.

After a mere 48 hours the only missing part, the mattress, was left lying in the same spot, presumably by the same individual.

In recent months there has been an escalation of illegal dumping, Resources and Infrastructure Ministry official Melvyn Mangion told TMID. “There are several sites that are being patrolled and cleaned, on a daily basis, but the effort is simply not enough.”

The department’s workers recover a pick-up van full of rubbish, from the Marsa to Valletta road stretch. The garbage is mostly packets of cigarettes, plastic bags and pizza boxes, thrown onto the street by motorists while they are driving by. In the coming days the ministry will be meeting law enforcement officials to implement a more effective enforcement programme.

There are several laws that cater for this sort of activity, especially in the Litter Act. Among the penalties contemplated in the act, there is the confiscation of the vehicle used for the illegal dumping for up to a year as well as fines of up to Lm1,000.

Anyone sighting such illegal disposals can

contact the Public Cleansing Department on freephone number 8007-2239 or send an e-mail to

[email protected]