25th July 2001

Sannat Local Council should resign

The news of the damage being done to Mgarr ix-Xini bay in Gozo came as a shock to Friends of the Earth (Malta), but was not a complete surprise. As long as the authorities in Malta continue to fail to take their environmental responsibilities seriously we can only expect this sort of behaviour.

The Sannat Council should resign or indicate quickly how it intends to bear the responsibility of restoring the beach to its natural state. The Council should also explain exactly what it meant when it stated that the project “was requested by the public.”

Which public is being referred to here. Some local residents? People that visit the bay from all over the world? Did the public ask for aggregate – crushed hard stone - to be thrown on the beach? Which environmental experts did the council consult before taking its decision? It is clear that anyone with a modicum of sense would realise what would happen when a bucket of aggregate is thrown into shallow sea water.

The attitude of the Environment Ministry leaves much to be desired. To state that “our role is purely consultative” is tantamount to saying “we don’t care”. The environment ministry must start taking its responsibilities as far as the environment is concerned and it must start doing so quickly.

While the evidence of environmental mismanagement and neglect continues to pile up, the ministry entrusted to protect our environment sits back and watches. We do not expect the environment ministry to solve problems in the short run, but the least it could do is to start to speak as if it had the interests of the environment at heart.

Fgura has the highest problems with respiratory diseases in the world; our land use policies continue to be suicidaly unsustainable; our beaches remain polluted; we have no policy to encourage sustainable energy use; our plans to adopt a waste management strategy remain just plans. While the list is somewhat overwhelming, much can be done in the short term. We call on the ministry to use the resources it has at hand and demonstrate its political will to improve the environment