Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1183920
5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 13 NOVEMBER 2019 NEWS JAMES DEBONO AN old people's home is being pro- posed outside development zones, in an area presently occupied by an 18,979 sq.m quarry along Triq il-Belt Valletta in Mqabba. The lies in the vicinity of a rural ham- let and other quarry developments but faces an agricultural area along the road leading to Kirkop. The proposal submitted by Bonnici Brothers envisages the "rehabilitation" of the existing disused soft stone quarry, through filling and landscaping works and the demolition of existing struc- tures, ramp,gates, rubble and boundary walls. Charles Buhagiar who chairs the Building Industry Consultative council, is the architect of the project. The proposed old peoples home set over a basement level and three over- lying floors will accommodate 42 two bed roomed guest rooms and ancillary facilities including a chapel, a cafete- ria, clinics, a multi purpose hall and a "wandering garden". The basement car park level will cater for 145 cars Present policies encourage the reha- bilitation of quarries and their rehabili- tation for agricultural use or the devel- opment of solar energy infrastructure. In general ODZ old people's homes can be considered but only after site selec- tion studies considering vacant plots within the development zone. The PA's policy guidelines on homes for the elderly state that old people's homes should be located close to or within a town or village centres to en- sure the full integration of the elderly in local communities. The PA has ap- proved policies allowing two extra sto- reys on existing old people's homes in urban areas with the aim of discourag- ing the proliferation of such develop- ments in the ODZ. In 2016 the PA had rejected an attempt by a developer to turn a disused quarry in Wied Ghomor into an old people's. Old people's home proposed in Mqabba quarry A total of 31 students became pregnant while in secondary school during the 2018/2019 scholastic year, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said, with 24 of them drop- ping out as a result. Only seven of these students went on to continue their second- ary school studies. Bartolo, answering Labour Whip Byron Camilleri's question in par- liament on Tuesday, said that all these students were referred to the government's Għożża service, a support service and educational programme for unmarried preg- nant minors designed to help them to pursue their career paths. Out of these 31 students, three of them became pregnant while they were 14 years old, 11 when they were 15 years old and the other 17 became pregnant at 16. None of the students who fell pregnant at 16 continued to fre- quent school. Two out of three students who fell pregnant at 14 continued studying while just five out of 11 students who fell preg- nant at 15 continue studying. 24 teens dropped out of school after becoming pregnant