Owners of undeveloped plots beware – the Malta Environment and Planning Authority is expected to kick-off an enforcement campaign for the closing-off of undeveloped plots, one of the main targets for dumped waste of all sorts.

By law, owners of undeveloped plots have long been obliged to close off their property by an eight-course wall as a deterrent to possible offenders dumping waste, but the enforcement of this law over the years is highly questionable.

In fact, in mid-November last year, Rural Affairs and the Environment Minister announced a new form of enforcement that should instil a certain sense of responsibility in everyone.

Minister Pullicino had said that unless owners of undeveloped plots closed off their property, local councils would be able to apply for funds from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) to build this said wall.

The usual hitches in the plan caused the enforcement campaign to be put off by a couple of months, but Mepa officials are doing their best to kick-off the campaign in the coming days.

Once any undeveloped plot of land is closed off by a local council, owners wanting to obtain permission to develop their plot will have to pay, with interest, the expenses incurred for the construction of the wall.

A Mepa spokesperson told this newspaper that it is not a matter of a huge financial burden to wall-off a site that would have costed several thousands of liri to complete.

A suitably-finished, eight-course wall would be an effective deterrent to litter louts and dumpers seeking to turn every nook and cranny into a mini-Maghtab and with a growing national consciousness towards a cleaner environment, the fines envisaged by law will become a reality.