ADPD-The Green Party is calling for an in-depth consideration of the impacts of the fireworks industry on agriculture and food safety.

ADPD said that it has noted with satisfaction that the new Culture Minister is ”determined to seek a solution to the problems of the fireworks industry.”

Carmel Cacopardo, ADPD Deputy Chairperson, stated that ”while the Minister’s commitment is laudable, it should be emphasised that the fireworks used in our locality celebrations should not be considered in isolation.”

He added that ”the considerable impacts being shouldered by agriculture as a result of the operation of the fireworks industry should be the starting point of the national debate. The consequences of the Maghtab June disaster are still imprinted in our minds, too recent to be forgotten.”

”The negative impacts of the fireworks industry on agriculture are not factored into the regulatory process. If this is not addressed, we will keep facing more incidents, one after the other. Both low impact incidents as well as far-reaching ones. We will be faced with never-ending consequences,” said Cacopardo.

He also emphasised that the Maghtab incident was not an isolated one: ”it is one of a number of incidents.”

Cacopardo argued that ”there is substantial more damage which is not visible to the naked eye. It is a continuous one resulting from the chemicals used in the manufacture of fireworks. The fireworks fallout which is spread over arable fields are part of the unaddressed problem. It is an ignored contamination about which various reports and studies have been carried out.”

Similarly, he said, ”farmhouses and the animals which they house are completely ignored by the regulatory process. This was clearly evident in the Maghtab June incident as was evidenced by the resultant large-scale damages, including dead animals.”

The incidents during the last weekend at il-Brolli and surrounding areas in Birzebbuga, which resulted in a warrant of prohibitory injunction issued by the Law Courts have led to a step forward. ”They signify that the rural community is done with being silent and with being ignored and is now determined to speak up,” he said.

Cacopardo concluded that ”this leads to the consideration that the time for protecting agriculture and the rural community from the negative impacts of the fireworks industry is long overdue. We cannot keep honouring this duty in the breach. It is only after factoring in agriculture and the rural community that we can start to seriously consider the fireworks industry.”

File photo: Gozo News/Alain Salvary

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