In yesterday's edition of The Malta Independent, we published a story about the rapidly deteriorating state of the site of abandoned Flower Power Garden Centre.

In short, the complex was abandoned after the owner went bankrupt and fled the country. Because it is serviced by roads, it has become a dump site. This is not a political observation. The site was abandoned back in 2010, so it has been allowed to mushroom into a conglomeration of toxic and hazardous waste under two administrations now.

As we mentioned in our article, it is very much an "out of sight and out of mind" problem. It is clear that the place has been identified as a very discreet dumping ground by individuals, tradesmen and - it seems - businesses too as there is a whole collection of computer and CCTV monitors, VCRs and more.

The fact that one can simply call the bulky refuse service and have any rubbish - however large and cumbersome - collected from their door shows just how much of a travesty and a completely lacking sense of civic duty or basic respect for the environment.

It is just not on. Now it is up to the authorities to sort it out. The only way we ever seem to understand and learn is if something hits our pockets, so the best course of action is to send some wardens there to monitor what is going on and slap anyone who does try and dump there with a hefty fine.

The second thing that needs to be done is to clean the place up. It is literally a tip, when it could be turned into something interesting, such as a park. It will not be an easy task to do so as the total amount of rubbish there must weigh tons.

It must also be pointed out that the area in question is no further than a ten minute drive to the nearest bring in site, which accepts any type of waste. One simply cannot understand why someone would go to the effort of trying to hide while dumping rubbish when they can do so in a perfectly legal manner.

Apart from the mountains of rubbish, the authorities must also look into the safety of the remaining structures that have been weakened by fires and vandals. This is not the first news story that this newspaper has published - another was the state of Fort Cambell in Selmun, which the government since announced will be restored.

There are many sites that require dire attention and in 2015, The Malta Independent will continue to publish more of them in the hope that someone might finally sit up and take notice and organise whatever needs to happen to get these illegal de facto dumps cleared up once and for all. It is unacceptable that no one has lifted a finger to stop this from happening. It is also unacceptable to have people in our society who believe that they can simply dump what they want, where they want. It just makes it even more hard to swallow to know that they could have just driven to a bring in site.