Enemalta Corporation has put up steel electricity poles in a rural area in Gozo without the permission of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa), this newspaper has learnt.
A Mepa enforcement notice was issued on 23 August, following the publication of an article in The Malta Independent regarding the erection of 17 electricity poles in Triq Ras il-Bajjada and Triq il-Qsajjam, forming part of an undisturbed stretch of countryside leading from the tranquil village of Munxar to Xlendi cliffs.
Interestingly, the rural area had been cleared of all wire cabling in the early 1990s when today’s Speaker in Parliament, Anton Tabone, was Gozo Minister.
Munxar residents who had spoken to this newspaper said they were worried that the reason behind the installation of the electricity poles was the fact that the Gozo Ministry intended to bypass traffic through Munxar while roadworks on Triq ix-Xlendi – the main road between Fontana and Xlendi – were carried out.
Moreover, earlier this year Mepa upheld a permit to sanction a pump room and water reservoir in the vicinity of the area under examination.
Michael Bajada, a member on Alternattiva Demokratika’s (AD) Gozo regional committee and a Munxar resident, had told this newspaper that he believed the electricity poles could have been intended to supply electricity to the owner of the pump room and reservoir.
According to the case details found on the Mepa website, the application for the sanctioning of the pump room and reservoir dated back to March 2004; more than nine months later the authority’s board had decided to refuse permission.
Reconsidering its decision in March last year, the board stood by its original decision, but overturned it in February this year.
Mr Bajada had expressed disappointment that the country road where the poles were erected is being stripped of its rural character.
Even the fact that tarmac was recently laid on one of the roads, showed that it would probably be used as a form of temporary bypass, he said, adding that the whole area links up with the Special Protection Area of Sannat Cliffs, Ta’ Cenc and Xlendi Valley, which Mepa itself declared as a high scheduled area in which no development could take place.
In fact, in the early 1990s former Gozo Minister Anton Tabone had ordered the removal of all wire cables from the rural site where the electrical poles were put up. These included telephone wires and cables installed by Melita Cable.
It seems that Mepa got the point and an enforcement officer who was sent to the site discovered that the electricity poles had been erected without a permit.
Enemalta Corporation has not yet replied to this newspaper’s query regarding the reason why the electricity poles were erected.