Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1450614
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 FEBRUARY 2022 NEWS JAMES DEBONO INEFFECTUAL enforcement against illegal dumping in the ar- chaeologically rich area next to the Xewkija heliport may serve as the pretext for the develop- ment of an airstrip over claims that the land is "disturbed". Gozo Minister Clint Camill- eri presented a site plan where the runway will be extended to accommodate fixed-wing air- craft, telling Nationalist MP Chris Said in a reply to a PQ that works "are being proposed on an area where inert waste had been dumped in the past". It transpires that most of the ar- ea identified for the project was the subject of an enforcement order issued in 2010 against the dumping of material without a permit. The enforcement is still considered an "active case" as no action was ever taken to remove the dumped material from the area. The planning enforcement was issued following a report against continuous illegal dumping in the area filed by Alternattiva Demokratika in 2008. The party had warned that the authorities were turning a blind eye on dumping to justify the de- velopment of an airstrip. Other enforcement notices against illegal dumping had been issued in 1995 and 1996 in close proximity to the heliport, but these were closed because the illegality was removed. A permit to remove illegal dumping and deposit soil in the archaeologically rich area around the heliport was issued in December 2013, through a development notification order (DNO) a simplified planning procedure normally used for minor interventions or develop- ments. While the Gozo Ministry had claimed the works were carried out for the benefit of farmers and the environment, the Gozo Business Chamber and the Gozo Tourism Association had welcomed the works "in prepa- ration for the Gozo airstrip". Despite these 'works', the area was still considered 'disturbed' as the area was not restored to its natural state. One major obstacle to the pro- ject is the possibility of archae- ological remains in the vicinity of the proposed area, some of which could have been covered by illegal dumping. According to the Superintendent for Cul- tural Heritage, the only official studies ever conducted on the area were carried out by the Museums Department in the mid-1990s. "At the time it emerged that the footprint of the projected airstrip was to be located over an area almost entirely covered by recent dumping. This ren- dered the assessment of the land from an archaeological point of view virtually impossible," act- ing Superintendent Nathaniel Cutajar had told MaltaToday in January 2007. A separate survey of the site carried out by MEPA in 2006 claimed that "the preliminary archaeological survey did not register insurmountable prob- lems (for the development of an airstrip) as the area has been predominantly heavily dis- turbed. But this does not mean that surprises cannot appear during the intervention stage." Experts told MaltaToday that any archaeological investigation would require the meticulous clearing of the entire site from any debris and soil cover, under strict supervision to ensure that any surviving remains are not destroyed in the process. Xewkija is rich in archaeolog- ical remains, to the extent that archaeologist David Trump had noted "several fine pairs" of cart ruts in the olive grove west of the pumping station, just south of Xewkija, less than a kilometre away from the proposed airstrip. In 1948, newspaper Il-Berqa revealed that parts of these cart ruts were vandalised when ex- plosives were used to clear the ground for the olive grove. In 2007, the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had called for an environmental impact assessment if an application to extend the Ta' Lambert airstrip in Gozo was presented to the Planning Authority. The landing strip at Ta' Lam- bert is actually considered in the Gozo-Comino local plan, which states that investigations must first be carried out to establish the development's impact. The local plan also states that the Planning Authority should assist the government in draft- ing the terms for a number of studies before a decision is tak- en, even before an environment impact assessment starts. The studies made mandato- ry by the local plan include an economic feasibility study to determine envisaged long-term revenue against capital and op- erational costs, a social impact study on the nearby community, a study on land-use, and a study on alternatives to a hard runway such as the use of amphibious aircraft. The impact on climate change could also be a thorny issue in view of official discourse pro- jecting Gozo as an eco-island. Illegal dumping near helipad could pave way for an airstrip Heritage watchdog complained that rubble dumped in the area prevented proper assessment of archeological potential of Xewkija in 1990s