Maltese farmers have blocked off an entrance to the Magħtab landfill in protest of plans to take away their land to expand the waste treatment facility.

Farmers have planted their tractors between Coast Road and Triq ir-Ramla in a morning-long protest against plans put forward by Wasteserv to seize a plot of land the size of Valletta in the area to develop an incinerator.

Such plans would have significant ramifications for the farming community in the area who feel that their livelihood would be at stake if Wasteserve were allowed to go through with it.

Protestors, including Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo and Robert Cutajar, seated themselves at the Magħtab entrance, and some even blocked the Coast Road lanes, before moving to allow traffic to pass.

“Our land has been taken up bit by bit for waste treatment for the past 30 years, not to mention the problems caused to our land by the waste dumped in the area,” farmer Charlie Sciberras told Lovin Malta. “This plan will deal us a mortal blow and will destroy the livelihoods of all us farmers who live and work here.”

“I come from the third generation of farmers who have lived and worked here and the government cannot take a shred more land from us. They’re going to have to bulldoze us out of here.”