Mqabba has a number of quarries too close to the residential area. They have been there for ages. Residents are accustomed to their impacts. Twenty-eight months ago, in these columns I had written about "Mqabba: a victim of institutional sclerosis" (TMIS 6 November 2022). Matters are now coming to a head. It is now being proposed that the impacts of one of these quarries will be intensified. The proposal includes the installation and operation of a stone crusher and the stock piling of the resulting crushed material in open air, in an existing quarry, partly still operational for the quarrying of soft stone, just 15 metres away from the limits to development.
Planning Application 0350/22 will be decided by the Planning Authority's Development Control Commission, shortly. The hearing, originally scheduled for 8 April, has been shifted to 8 May, for reasons so far unknown. The Planning Directorate has finalised a report recommending the approval of the application.
The site is close to the Mqabba Primary School, yet the educational authorities are not known to have made any submissions on the impact of the proposed development on the school children and their teachers. (At least none are available for public viewing on the Planning Authority website.) It seems that the educational authorities have not learned anything yet from the eko-skola activities which it runs in various State schools in conjunction with environmental NGO Nature Trust. The Education Department should be in a position to lead by example yet it has opted for silence!
Two basic issues arise from planning application PA 0350/22: the dispersal of dust and noise pollution. The Mineral Subject Plan for the Maltese Islands, a planning authority document approved some years back, had estimated that dust emissions from quarries can be deposited around 250 metres from the source and up to 500 metres in extreme cases. Part of Mqabba is already impacted by the dispersal of dust resulting from current quarrying operations. This impact will increase if the proposal under consideration is approved.
The generation of dust and noise is fundamentally a land use planning issue even though it results from the operation of the development proposal. It is an integral part of the proposed development, and in direct conflict with the quality-of-life one expects in a residential area in 21st century Malta. This is also of considerable prejudice to the health of all, including the Mqabba children (and their teachers) at the primary school, close to the site under consideration.
Noise pollution and dust dispersal from quarries are a matter of environmental health concern which is prioritised in the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development (SPED). Thematic Objective 6.3 of SPED emphasises the need to protect vulnerable areas from sources of pollution: air and noise pollution in this particular case.
If one reads through the report prepared by the planning directorate case officer recommending the approval of this application, there is no reference whatsoever to this specific policy which is of fundamental importance in assessing this application. It is very difficult to understand how and why this omission can in any way justifiable.
To make matters worse, the Environmental Health Department, in its submissions dated 22 October 2022, which it presented to the Planning Authority as part of the consultation process, avoids completely any reference to dust dispersal and noise pollution. The Environmental Health Department limits its submissions to cesspits and ignores completely issues of noise and dust.
Even without the operation of the proposed crusher, Mqabba residents are already inundated with issues of quarry dust and noise to the detriment of their health. Yet the Department of Environmental Health still opts to remain silent.
It is equally worrying that the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) has endorsed the proposal as it has concluded that "the environmental impacts of the proposal are unlikely to be significant".
Even ERA is ignoring issues of environmental health, which issues fit squarely within its brief.
The applicant's response to the objections submitted to the proposed development is in the form of a dust suppression report and a noise mitigation report. Both reports are theoretical in nature. Such reports very rarely portray and/or address the reality on the ground.
The proposal is such that the crusher at the quarry will be partly within an enclosed space. This will definitely reduce the impacts but the problem will still be substantially in place as the crushed material will be stored in the open. Sprinkling the top of the stockpiles in order to dampen them in the summer months, will have an insignificant impact in reducing the dispersal of dust.
It is too early to state what the final decision on this planning application will be. It is however already very clear that the public authorities have abandoned the local community of Mqabba and the primary school children. They will remain for many years to come at the mercy of the operators of the quarries, at least for the next 15 to 20 years, the estimated lifespan of the proposed project. The quality-of-life improvement will take some more years to be of any relevance to Mqabba. They should thank ERA, the Environmental Health Department and the Education Department, and obviously the Planning Authority.
When push comes to shove, these state institutions are proving themselves to be irrelevant for the Mqabba community.
An architect and civil engineer, the author is Chairperson of ADPD-The Green Party in Malta. [email protected] , http://carmelcacopardo.wordpress.com