Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party (AD) has deplored the unnecessary deaths in fireworks accidents, with chairman Harry Vassallo saying the deaths and injuries caused by fireworks in Malta are an unforgivable extravagance.

“While it is the custom for the highest authorities in the land to rush to the scene after such an event and show sympathy with the bereaved, the photo opportunity soon fades and the aftermath takes place far from media attention,” Dr Vassallo said.

“Quite apart from the toll of lives cut short, the economic, social, educational and psychological effect on the families particularly the children of the dead and injured, remain undocumented,” Dr Vassallo said.

“One should also add to these the stress and tension caused to neighbours of fireworks factories who are obliged to live and work with unnecessary and unprofitable risks,” Dr Vassallo said.

He continued: “Joe Colombo who was nearly blown to bits on Wednesday had suffered the illegal construction of road on his property to accommodate the fireworks factory with the connivance or acquiescence of government and opposition. No fireworks factory neighbour enjoys effective remedies because both government and opposition parties run scared of the festa organisers in every village.”

“The Rabat farmers now facing an application for the construction of a Dingli fireworks adjacent to their fields factory must now experience increased anxiety. The farmers in Zejtun whose objections to their fireworks factory have been to no avail will now live in heightened dread of being blown up. The parents of children attending the Sannat primary School which is annually showered with live petard remnants from the Munxar festa bangs may wonder whether it is time to do something before one of their children is maimed,” Dr Vassallo said.

“In the light of constantly repeated explosions of fireworks factories and the fully documented inability of the authorities to address the situation effectively over very many years, nobody can reasonably call last Wednesday’s incident an accident,” Dr Vassallo said.

“Merely to show sympathy towards the bereaved while refusing to acknowledge the deliberate and predictable annual human sacrifice is scandalous and deplorable behaviour,” Dr Vassallo said.

He said: “Alternattiva Demokratika calls for an immediate ban on the issue of development permits for new fireworks factories and for the revision and withdrawal of licenses to factories to which site neighbours have objected.”

Dr Vassallo concluded: “In view of the extreme electoral vulnerability of the other political parties on this issue, we call for the establishment of an all party steering committee to revise existing laws and practices and to determine a sane, civilised and practicable national policy to regulate the fireworks industry.”