Malta’s national environmental monitoring infrastructure and capacity has over the past months been significantly upgraded, with the prospect that the improved availability and reliability of information on the state of the environment will enable the development of more informed and better targeted policy measures in all spheres of public policy, including health, fiscal, economic, social and environmental domains.
This EU funded project, which is in its final months of implementation, has seen the investment of €4.9 million in the procurement of environmental monitoring equipment, information management systems, delivery of environmental baseline surveys, training of staff, and the development and enhancement of the national monitoring programmes for air, water, radiation, noise and soil.
MEPA Chairman Austin Walker said that “this project has enabled us to make big strides in improving our environmental monitoring capacity. Once the project is completed later this year, government entities and institutions can start to sustain long term effective and cost efficient environmental monitoring programmes. Together with this, Malta will be fully complying, and excel beyond compliance with the monitoring obligations stemming from the EU environmental Acquis.”
Mr Walker pointed out that the high quality environmental data that is being generated through this project will not remain secluded, but will be made available free of charge on a web-based environmental information system which will allow the public to access quality environmental data for a variety of purposes. Mr Walker concluded that “this will enable us, as a nation, to be more aware of the environmental trends affecting our health and quality of life.”
Dr Saviour Formosa, a member of the MEPA project team, gave a detailed presentation on the technical aspects and the deliverables resulting from the project. An important component of the project is the delivery of 3D terrestrial and bathymetric surveys which will result in a new updated high resolution baseline map for the Maltese Islands within 1 nautical mile from the coastline. These surveys will enable the creation of new nautical charts as well as facilitate land use and marine spatial planning.
The project is also investigating the development of a long-term monitoring strategy for the marine environment, a social and economic analysis of the use of marine waters and costs of degradation, and baseline sediment survey in inland waters.
Welcoming the progress of the project, Environment Minister Mario de Marco emphasized the linkages between the state of our environment and people’s health and quality of life.
"The deliverables of this project, said the Minister, would not only be of benefit to policy makers and the scientific community, but also to the business community, since the increased availability of quality environmental data will reduce the costs of environmental impact assessment processes, hence the cost (and time) of decision making on major development proposals. “But ultimately, it is the people, the public at large, who will benefit since the increased availability of quality up-to-date environmental information will enable the people to become more aware of the environmental trends affecting their health and quality of life, and the relation between these trends and human activities”, the Minister added.