13th September 2002

Sustainability test should be applied to all major applications

Moviment ghall-Ambjent, Friends of the Earth (Malta) has read the ‘Project Description Statement’ related to the proposed Qala development and finds the proposal objectionable as a whole.

Malta cannot continue to look at each individual development as a stand-alone. What is being proposed at Qala is tantamount to creating a new village.

Gozo simply does not need and would be better off without new villages. Indeed the attraction of Gozo that will ensure its long-term sustainability as a tourism destination is the fact that it can boast relatively more countryside than Malta.

Environment Impact statements are meaningless as conducted in Malta. Each study looks at a particular site without considering the situation in the Maltese Islands as a whole.

Malta is committed to sustainable development: “that development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.”

We now have a National Commission for Sustainable Development, the job of which is about to be made defunct with all the unsustainable projects that are being approved.

FoE Malta strongly suggests that each large application that is to be considered by the MEPA is subjected to a sustainability test: ie only projects that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, should be considered.

Any developer wishing to build dwellings, or tourism accommodation would have to prove, and the MEPA would have to accept, that the development is required to satisfy genuine needs.