Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1509248
12 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 OCTOBER 2023 Enemalta would like to bring to the market's attention the upcoming judicial sale by auction of various data centre equipment and material. The full list of items to be put up for sale, including, a valuation report by a court expert will be shared with any interested bidder free of charge by sending an email on datacentreauction@enemalta. com.mt. Date: 10th May, 2023 at 10.30am Location: Data Centre, One (1) Chamber at the former A Station, Marsa Power Station, Triq Belt il-Ħażna This advert is not to be taken as advice on court procedure and any interested bidders are to make their own independent verification and seek advice if they deem necessary. IT was none other than an- ti-apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu who in 2015, desiring a no-frills ceremony on his death, requested specifically a cheap coffin and eco-friendly cremation. The method employed to avoid the environmental toll of a cremation by fire, was aq- uamation, an environmentally friendly alternative that uses water. It is a method that Kate Mus- cat hopes will achieve the green light in the near future for the land she owns next to the Żab- bar cemetery, as a way of of- fering a dignified, and possibly cheaper alternative to tradition- al forms of burial. Muscat, who hails from a Brit- ish medical and funerary back- ground, is married to Jeremy, a lawyer with construction in- terests – together, the couple behind Repose Crematorium hope they will pioneer a facili- ty providing both religious and non-religious ceremonies, with a Chapel of Rest that will allow mourners to view their depart- ed loved ones in a familiar sur- rounding that is not the hospital morgue. But Muscat hopes the plan- ning and health authorities will respond positively to her plans to introduce aquamation to Malta, an environmentally friendly cremation that does away entirely with the toxicity of a cremation by fire. In aquamation, or "alkaline hydrolysis", the body of the de- ceased is immersed for three to four hours in a mixture of water and a strong alkali, such as po- tassium hydroxide, in a pressur- ised metal cylinder and heated to around 150 degrees Celcius. The process liquifies everything except for the bones, which are then dried in an ov- en and reduced to white dust, placed in an urn and handed to relatives. But the process is not yet leg- islated in Malta. That could mean a long waiting game for the Muscats. "As a nation we are a very mixed demographic these days – we know there are people who want the opportunity to have a ceremony in Malta at the site of a cremation," Muscat says. "Take Hindus, of which there is a high level of believers in Malta who would desire to be cremated. Or non-religious people who would appreciate a ceremony in our Chapel of Rest, with the body presented dec- orously in a coffin, rather than at the morgue. Some funeral services are already offering cremation in Sicily, a process that naturally carries a logistical cost." Malta's planning regime has spent years debating policies on where to site a crematori- um: in 2019, then Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar, having spear- headed the proposed law on cremation, said it was likely the government would allow just one crematorium, tagged at a cost of €1.5 million. Earlier in 2015, MPs in the parliamenta- ry committee for environment and development took it upon themselves to declare that aq- uamation should be excluded from any planning policy, with one Nationalist MP, Ryan Cal- A gentler cremation by water Kate Muscat believes aquamation, a cremation by water, is an ideal alternative to traditional burials and cremation by fire that can also provide a dignified goodbye to dear beloved without any harmful environmental emissions. MATTHEW VELLA sits down with her Kate Muscat