€24m to spruce up lower Valletta
● Project has to be completed by 2020
The government has announced a €24 million EU-funded project to regenerate the lower part of Valletta.
Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and Parliamentary Secretary Aaron Farrugia held a joint press conference yesterday morning, where it was revealed that the project would stretch from Fort St Elmo to the fortification interpretation centre.
The financing will come from the EU Regional Development Fund (RDF) 2014-2020. The minister confirmed that this meant that the project would have to be completed by 2020.
This was reiterated by PS Farrugia, who said he believed that a government should accomplish everything it promised within its electoral manifesto by the end of the legislature.
The project is expected to include the refurbishment and introduction of improved infrastructure, architecture, social housing, open spaces, commercial centre, promenade and the water polo pitch.
When asked by The Malta Independent, Mizzi said that social housing will be an integral part of the project which will combat the negative effects of gentrification and will see the regeneration of government-owned buildings.
It was important, he said, that the residents participate in the project.
A committee that will identify projects for the initiative will be headed by Permanent Secretary Paul Zahra, and will also involve individuals from the Valletta Local Council, the V-18 foundation and the Planning Authority.
Dingli told this newsroom that there is a food bank in Valletta that risked closure due to a lack of supplies. In addition, a soup kitchen is expected to open in Valletta later this year, he said. Both the food bank and the kitchen would, under the bill, be entitled to food which is soon to expire – but not yet expired – from supermarkets in order to serve to less fortunate people.
While the details of Dingli’s proposal cannot be released at this time, he did stress that the proposal is extremely similar to French law.
Dingli described poverty as an issue which needs to be solved. “I’ve seen the sprouting of various initiatives (parish collections, food banks, soup kitchens, and so on) to help those in need, but not all of them are sustainable and some of them risk closing down,” he told this newsroom.
“Because of this, a few years ago I contacted Arash Derambarsh, the person who started the French movement to forbid food waste. We became friends and with his help, together with the support of other people (Dr Robert Camenzuli, the Valletta Local Council and others whom I’d like to thank), we managed to come up with a draft legislation.”
Describing the meeting with the President, Dingli said that “Her Excellency was pleased with the initiative and she will be working to gather national support on the matter. After all, poverty affects everyone and to reduce it, we need the support of all political parties.”
Dingli explained that 25% of foodstuff is being wasted and thrown away. “If we manage to save a part of it and donate it to those in need, we can make a huge difference to families who need it.”
Arash Derambarsh, a municipal councillor for the LR - Les Républicains in Courbevoie, north-west of Paris, who was the main person pushing for the legislation in France, spoke with this newsroom about the situation in his home country, where such a law was the first of its kind globally.
The law in France, he said, means that supermarkets of a certain size would have to, if approached by a charity, donate unsold food that is about to expire (within a few hours or a day) – but which is still fit for consumption – to the charity. If the supermarket refuses, he said, it would have to pay a fine.
He explained that in France, 5,000 charities specifically tied with food collection from supermarkets and distribution of that food, were created since the law was enacted. The associations vary, from ones which collect the food and store it in freezers for future distribution, to ones who collect the food for larger associations. This has resulted in roughly 10 million meals a year, he explained.
He said that the charities themselves have to go to the supermarket to pick up the food, and if a supermarket is not contacted, then that establishment can get rid of the food any way it likes, but this is something they are working to eradicate. He explained that in larger cities all supermarkets are connected to charities and it is only in more rural areas where lack of connection remains an issue.
The process to have this law enacted in France was not easy, however, and he explained that the supermarket lobby was against the idea. However, Derambarsh and others supporting the idea managed to sway public opinion and a petition also helped. “We managed to hold on and stuck with our idea. The petition was signed by over 200,000 people and we managed to convince the parliamentarians that the law was good for the country.”
The next objective, he said, is to have a similar thing in EU law. “We need the leadership of Malta to help on this issue, to help obtain a million signatures through an EU-wide petition we have launched, so that we may take up the issue with the European Commission in order for this cause to be made law across all EU states.”
So far, 910,000 people have signed the petition, which is part of a European campaign working with the NGOs Action against Hunger and the French Red Cross.