The Authority would like to clarify and bring to the attention of the media, a number of issues which have been wrongly interpreted and reported as regards to the approved permit in Wardija.

MEPA can confirm that the claims made by FAA in an article issued in ‘The Times’ stating that ‘MEPA has approved an industrial chicken broiler unit’ in Wardija are totally false and inaccurate.

The permit in question (PA 5784/08) approved solely the change of use of an existing building to a manure clamp and the creation of 2 cesspits, holding tank and water reservoir, following an application to introduce waste management facilities to an already existing broiler farm. A request in the application for the sanctioning of two illegally developed structures servicing the existing farm was refused and their demolition ordered as a condition to the permit. . Moreover, MEPA ordered a revised landscaping scheme to mitigate the impacts that the existing farm may have on the visual amenity .

The Authority would like to point out that the Department of Agriculture had confirmed in the course of the proceedings that the applicant has been registered with it and at the same location since 1988. Aerial photos of 1988 and 1994 moreover identify the main structures of the broiler farm.

The impression given by the FAA, that MEPA recently approved an industrial chicken broiler unit for 14,000 chickens, when such farm already existed, is therefore totally false and incorrect.

Furthermore, an investigation was carried out by the Audit Officer Perit Joseph Falzon as in terms of Section 17C of the Development Planning Act concluded that the proper procedures as established by law were adopted in the assessment of this development application.