Watch: Ministry Worker Keeps Birżebbuġa Fish Plant Message Anonymous Out Of Fear They Will Lose Their Job
A ministry worker from Birżebbuġa attended today’s fish plant protest and sent a message of support but decided to keep it anonymous out of fear they could lose their job.
Their message was instead read out by Conrad d’Amato, secretary of Għaqda Storja u Kultura Birżebbuġa, which co-organised the protest with Moviment Graffitti.
“I will speak as a child of Birżebbuġa who grew up in this town,” the message read. “The Freeport was already established when I was growing up, but I would always hear stories of how lovely the bay once was and how people would catch fish here. I couldn’t believe that fish once grew and swam in these dirty waters but that reality had become normalised and we grew used to it because we didn’t know any better.”
The ministry worker went on to recount the fear he used to feel as a child when he would sleep over at his grandparents and heard loud noises originating from the nearby Freeport.
“I could hear the containers clanging against each other in the wind and the operators talking and swearing as clearly as though they were in my room with me. I had to accept it as a fact, just as I had to get used to not being able to swim at Pretty Bay and by Pont tax-Shell because of the dirty and oily waters.”
The worker urged the people of Birżebbuġa to help break the cycle that has seen successive governments take them for granted.
“Perhaps they keep beating us down because we’ve grown so used to it, but we are tired now. I am here to end the plague that has passed through this beautiful town for generations.”
“I don’t want to get used to a reality of not being able to breathe fresh air or opening a window because of foul smells. I am present in the crowd but I had to stay anonymous because unfortunately everything gets interpreted politically in this country.”
D’Amato said it was “concerning” that the worker felt the need to remain anonymous and warned it was a reflection of the “poverty of the country’s political philosophy”.
“This isn’t a political issue,” he said. “I am 40 years old and remember a different Birżebbuġa. Successive governments didn’t take care of this village and we must now make our voices heard because we aren’t second-class citizens.”
“We don’t want anyone to condition the air we breathe. It’s a fact that the town is sometimes taken over by intolerable smells and that this has been happening ever since the plant started operating.”
“This fish plant also exposed a long-ignored problem with the drainage system, which was built during our grandparents’s days for a town with a population of 5,000 people. The town’s population has now tripled, not to mention the Ħal Far factories. Planning must take place before projects commence, and not after disasters that arise.”
Do you think the plant should close down?
READ NEXT: Watch: We Could Take Direct Action To Stop Birżebbuġa Fish Plant, Activist Warns At Protest
