The green whistleblower

Abstract

The proposed SME park at Burmarrad would be an industrial park in the middle of vintage agricultural land. I start this article with news of a further sacrificing of massive parcels of land through the SMEs (Micro Enterprises) Site Selection Exercise jointly conducted by MEPA and the government through the Parliamentary Secretary for Economic Services. Through such an exercise, MEPA has earmarked over 282,000 m2 of land for such a development, aimed at creating enough industrial land to meet demand of many self-employed, lowering both the price of land and rent. The story starts to get pear-shaped when one delves behind the headlines. Some 75,810 (or roughly 25 per cent) of all the land allocated for such SMEs will be carved out of arable land at T'Alla u Ommu, l/o Burmarrad, where the entire site has been peppered in the past five years with no fewer than 21 enforcement notices issued to check illegal extensions to batching plants, quarrying activities, etc.