With reference to the editorial (TMID, 30 September) entitled The minister’s guarantee, allow me to clarify that it is not correct to state that the site area required was “later extended” from 18,000 square metres to 47,000 square metres, thus rendering the Sant’ Antnin site as the only suitable alternative. Awareness should be given to the following facts:

The Sant’ Antnin facility is today up and running. Any proposed upgrading must be done on an existing building;

The Solid Waste Management Strategy of 2001 clearly states that the Sant’ Antnin plant (and nowhere else in Malta) should be upgraded;

The original application makes no reference to size. On the contrary, a site plan of the existing footprint was annexed to the application clearly indicating the size of the site;

The Project Description Statement requested by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in 2003 indicated a site area of 18,000 square metres as the built up area, but also clearly indicated the extent of the site boundary through a site plan in Appendix B. Hence the extent of the 47,000 square metres was known as of day one;

The Project Description Statement was issued for public consultation and no comments on size were made then;

Following the Project Description Statement, an Alternative Site Assessment was carried out, approved and issued for consultation. The document was made public in July 2004 and no issue regarding alternative sites ensued;

The proposal had to be developed taking on board people’s concerns lest this be criticised as a fait accompli. Once the throughput was confirmed at 71,000 tonnes per annum (12,000 tonnes less than it is designed for today) the issue of an alternative site continued to lose its significance.

I trust that the above clarifies matters.

Chris Ciantar

Head of Strategy and Development

WasteServ