At least three families might soon wake up to the sights and sounds, not to mention smells, of hundreds of pigs overwhelming their villas in Salini Road, as an application to develop a massive pig farm in the outskirts of Naxxar is set to be decided tomorrow.
Despite the residents’ objections on the grounds of the extreme vicinity to their homes, pig farmer Wistin Muscat is expected to have his way when it comes to relocating his farm from its present location at Pwales, as MEPA already has a recommendation to accept the development.
The board will decide tomorrow whether Muscat’s development should go ahead despite the fact that his pig sty will be closer than the required 200 metres from residences, with no buffer zone separating human from porcine residences.
On paper, the application is for 80 pigs to be housed in part of what is known as “It-Telgħa t’Alla w Ommu”, but the residents there are concerned that Muscat will not only inundate them with the stench of 80 pigs, but of all the 3,000 swine housed at the other Pwales farm, which is set to be closed down because it fails to conform to EU standards.
Also, the proposed pig farm would fall on government-owned fresh arable land that was previously tilled by another farmer, but not for the purpose of breeding animals.
“We’re three families, two of us with very young children,” said Marco Borg, whose back garden will soon have pig-dung as part of the landscape if the permit is granted. “We are at a disadvantage since the Agriculture Department is represented on the development control commission and the planning authority board, and certain members are clearly lobbying in favour of the development, while our rights as residents for many years in this locality are being totally ignored.
“According to Tony Mifsud, Director of Agriculture, this application is of national priority because of EU regulations and funding. As far as I know the EU puts its citizens as its priority, not pigs.”
And according to the Central Malta Local Plan, the Maghtab settlement is considered an “inhabited area” designated as Category Two Rural Settlement “located within a wider rural area that should be conserved, consolidated and rehabilitated while protecting their rural character”.
According to the application, submitted by Mary Muscat on behalf of Wistin Muscat and Sons Ltd, the permit would be for a pig fattening farm for 80 pigs. But according to the same Muscat family, their declared intention is to relocate 3,000 of their 5,000 pigs from their Pwales farm because of EU directives.
“This confirms that the outline application for 80 pigs was simply to disguise their real intentions: once they are granted the permit, they would have contaminated the land and there will be nothing to stop the development from extending,” Borg said.
“We find it inconceivable for the planning directorate and the DCC that a permit is granted for a development that would obviously have a deleterious impact on the existing adjacent residences and cause bad neighbourliness by virtue of noise, smell, atmospheric pollution, unusual operating times, visual intrusion, health hazards, financial loss and all the negative attributes associated with animal farms.
“Sharing your dividing wall with a pig farm is degrading, to say the least,” Borg added.
According to the case officer’s report, the farm is objectionable in view of residents in immediate vicinity, but the case officer still recommended granting the permit.
The department of public health had no objection to the project while the department of veterinary services gave its strong recommendation “as it would relieve a more sensitive area at Pwales”.