Labour leader Alfred Sant yesterday told a news conference that Marsa could be rehabilitated both for residential and commercial purposes and the Labour Party’s regional development plan for Grand Harbour was a signal that this could indeed happen.

Marsa had for long suffered from problems which badly affected its community. They had arisen firstly because of the siting and pollution of the power station and the abattoir, which hurt the quality of life and led to degradation of the area, and a state of neglect.

Nationalist governments, the Labour leader said, had promised to remove the Marsa power station once the Delimara power station was commissioned, and that families living in its shadows and those in Albert Town would be given alternative accommodation. The menqa was to be developed and the drainage problem eliminated. None of these promises had been kept.

The Labour Party’s regional development plan would see to these challenges. Non-complementary activities in the same areas had been identified, such as areas with a tourism potential or which were residential having an industrial use. The rezoning the plan proposed would create promenades from Valletta to Floriana, Marsa, Pieta, Msida, Ta’ Xbiex, Gzira and Sliema, from Kalkara to Vittoriosa, Cospicua and Senglea.

A first class maritime centre would be created in Grand Harbour, and the Malta Shipbuilding area would become a marine industrial park for ship, yacht and barge maintenance. The menqa would see a marina for small yachts and for boats. The Marsa power station would be decommissioned and replaced by a garden village.