Speaking about the rehabilitation of the Maghtab dump, the Labour Party’s spokesmen on the environment, Joe Brincat and Roderick Galdes, said the Nationalist Party was now, on the eve of a general election, taken up with trying to convince the country about its environmental credentials.

For years Nationalist administrations had totally neglected the environment, so much so that waste management had not been introduced, with the Maghtab dump situation becoming precarious, though many had been warning about it since the early nineties, if not even before.

The answer of the Nationalists in government was that they did not have the money, which was why nothing was being done about Maghtab. At the same time the government was squandering millions in propaganda promoting membership of the European Union.

The situation had been brought to everyone’s attention by a site visit by Alfred Sant, in his time as Prime Minister. Labour in government, the MLP spokesmen said, will fully rehabilitate the Maghtab dump, with the residents’ interests in mind, and bring into use the latest technology to take advantage of any energy which could be recoverable there.

Labour believed in the need to use a rehabilitated Maghtab as a recreation park and in the context of developing its potential as a tourist attraction.