Minister George Pullicino has reassured the public that a “very heavy blitz” in 2004 had eliminated the rat population in the former Maghtab rubbish dump and there is no need to re-introduce the practice of “shooting” the rodents, as suggested by Opposition MP Charles Buhagiar.
Creepy, genetically modified giant rats of Maghtab, feeding on the toxic substances dumped over the past decades, are the stuff of urban legend.
Residents living in the sorrounding hamlets still report sightings of giant rats, and blame Maghtab for the scourge afflicting their locality.
On Monday Labour MP Charles Buhagiar raised this issue in parliament asking Minister George Pullicino why the practice of “shooting” rats in Maghtab was stopped, now that hungry rats are drifting to the surrounding areas to find food.
“We are not living in the times when shooting rats was the solution to control rats,” crisply replied Pullicino.
Experts contacted by this newspaper confirmed that rats generally live where they find food. According to these experts, rats do not usually travel 500 metres down from the Maghtab landfill to Bahar ic-Caghaq to look for food.
“Rats do not travel more than 50 metres from their homes to look for food and generally settle wherever food is available,” Comtec director Ronnie Agius told MaltaToday.
Comtec is contracted by Wasteserv to keep pests in the new engineered landfill under strict control.
Agius does not blame residents for thinking that the rats come from Maghtab.
“In the past there was a problem of rats. But this is no longer the case,” Agius said.
Comtec has investigated a number of cases involving rats in Bahar ic-Caghaq and most of these originated from neighbouring farms were the rodents nourish themselves on animal feed.
“In one particular case, a family blamed Maghtab but the source of infestation was a cow farm on the other side of the road.”
He also confirmed that when people leave food for ducks living in the Soccorso channel near the salt pans, they are also inadvertedly feeding the rat populations.
“We had the same problem in the Maghluq reserve M’Scala where rats were also attracted by food left for the ducks. The same thing is happening in Salina.”
Agius reassured the public that the situation in the engineered land fill and the closed Maghtab dump is fully under control and that an inspection is held every month to ensure that the rat population does not recover.
Agius said that the rat population has also been controlled in other former dumps like Qortin and Wied Fulija.
“In Qortin, the problem was even worse than that at Maghtab. Before the dump was closed and disinfested, the watchman used to lock himself up in his shelter as he was too scared of the rats.”
Speaking in parliament, Pullicino made it clear that it is impossible for rats to have lived in Maghtab for the past four years without any source of nourishment.
He also recounted how the Maghtab rats were exterminated when the landfill was closed.
“In October 2003 a detailed report was prepared and an intervention was planned.”
The showdown with the giant rats took place on April 7, 2004.
“On that day just before the dumps were closed, a very heavy blitz was conducted giving the pests no chance to recover from the treatment.”

jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt

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