From Mr J. Portelli
I wish to comment on the letter “The Nadur Cemetery saga – The other side of the coin” sent by the architect and lawyer representing the Nadur parish (TMIS, 8 February).
The farmers never said that the spring tunnel passes underneath the cemetery site. They said that water from underneath the cemetery site feeds the spring.
I wish to ask: With what will the graves be sealed? Some human corpses are injected with formaldehyde and this will end up in the spring water. Who will pay for the damages? The Nadur parish I presume, and who took the wrong decisions will carry the responsibility.
It is a fact that Water Services Corporation did not want a cemetery near a borehole because there was the risk of contamination.
The fact that Malta Resource Authority gave the go ahead to the project does not annul the fact that WSC was against the project near a borehole so much beneath the surface, so I presume it will be much more against a cemetery near a water source a few tens of metres beneath the surface. And is it true that part of St Mary’s Cemetery in Victoria was closed because a WSC borehole was at risk of contamination?
You said that Malta Resource Authority was not against the project. You should have said what MRA said. It said that the clay slope under the cemetery site slopes in a north-easterly direction implying that water from beneath the cemetery site moves along this way and not towards the Ghajn Qasab spring. But this is not true. In fact, water from beneath the cemetery site feeds the spring and the water ended up milky when digging began. You kept silent about this fact.
You mentioned that the Gozo Law Courts refused the warrant of injunction, because architect Godwin Abela said that there is no risk of contamination. This expert primly quoted MRA. So he is wrong because MRA is wrong. So the Law Courts were wrong in refusing the injunction because they based their decision on wrong information.
You said one should see how the plan for the cemetery helps the environment by planting trees. You should have said how it is going to ruin the natural environment by building outside development zone, by ruining the visual aspect in a natural habitat leading to Ramla, and by contaminating the Ghajn Qasab spring from which ten thousand gallons of water a day are used to irrigate fertile land, a natural paradise. Why do you keep saying that the Ghajn Qasab spring water is contaminated? Now it is almost good for drinking.
With the cemetery it will not even be fit to irrigate the land.
Stop building the cemetery. Stop ruining the natural environment. Shame on you, you who supported this ruining of the environment, you who make a show of being champions of the natural environment.
Joe Portelli
NADUR