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	A Welcome Legislative Proposal The Malta Independent May 24, 2010 http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=106553 The fact that plans are in the pipeline to amend legislation to make the reporting of child abuse to the competent authorities mandatory is very welcome. To date, there is no legislation in Malta, in contrast to some to the legal state of affairs some other countries, that mandatorily requires the reporting child abuse. As matters stand, that decision is left completely to the person with knowledge of any such abuse. In an interview in today’s paper, Minister Dolores Cristina could not have been clearer when she states that the reporting of child sex abuse should be made mandatory and any amendments to the current legislation should ensure that the law provides for children’s complete protection. She adds, “I am all for making sure that legislation covers child abuse completely. Every case of child abuse has to be reported to the police and action has to be taken. When there is a case of alleged child abuse, nobody has a right to protection. It is in the best interest of children for cases to be reported by whoever is aware of them.” The comments will certainly be greeted with open arms by many who have been campaigning against the status quo in this respect. Such legislative amendments, if enacted at the end of the day, would also close a yawning gap between the church and state when it comes to the thorny issue of clergy abuse – an issue that has been so topical over the last month in the lead up to and the aftermath of the Pope’s visit to Malta and his landmark meeting with Maltese abuse victims. In a bid to contain the damage to the Church’s reputation, following wave after wave of abuse scandals earlier this year, in April the Vatican had issued a new set of guidelines on what bishops should do when confronted with abuse cases. The guidelines stipulate that where a country requires abuse to be reported, the Church must follow the law of the land and report any such abuse to the civil authorities. The problem in Malta, however, is that there never been any such obligation and as such, the Maltese Church has remained exempt from the rule. That gap, should the legislative amendments go through, will be closed and, as per the Vatican’s guidelines, the Maltese Church would in future be duty-bound to report any abuse that comes to its attention to the appropriate authorities and no longer handle accusations on its own steam. It is high time that the issue is dealt with by the government. Fly ash and trust in the Delimara extension The situation would be almost comical were it not so serious. A decision was taken at the beginning of last year to switch off the pollution-collecting precipitators at the Marsa power station because there was nowhere to store the fly ash being collected. Why? Because the Malta Environment and Planning Authority issued a stop order on the owners of the quarry where the fly ash was being kept, and also stopped them from using the fly ash as a mixer in its concrete. Once they were switched off, all the pollution collected by the precipitators was simply blown into the atmosphere, at a rate of a tonne a day for effectively seven months. On the one hand, Mepa was quite right to have taken the action that it did. Permits for the use of such materials need to be closely adhered to and scrutinised in depth by the authority. Moreover, any illegal handling, storage or use of such waste must be given absolutely no quarter. But on the other hand, the consequences were not weighed up in the way they clearly should have been. But when the decision was taken to simply switch off the Marsa power stations precipitators because there was nowhere to store the fly ash collected, after the installation’s silos were filled after some six months, the consequences are tantamount a conscious endangerment of public health. Although dangerous, one would be hard pressed to argue that fly ash is better dispersed into the air above citizens’ heads than stored in an unlicensed quarry and seeping into a cliff face. Priorities have been misconstrued here and responsibility must be taken for the decision taken. Yes, the Marsa power station is to be closed down in the near future, an undeniably welcome move. But now that the country is facing the increasingly real prospect of running the Delimara power station on heavy fuel oil, and all the potential ramifications on public health that brings with it, public confidence that pollution abatement practices will be effective and operated correctly is paramount. But, given the ill-advised decision to allow fly ash to be dispersed into the air, which appears to have been covered up and is possibly associated with the black dust problem that plagued the south of the island last year, can the public trust really have faith in authorities to ensure that an already sketchy and potentially dangerous technology is operated to the highest of environmental standards? Last year’s precipitator decision certainly does not bode well in this respect.
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