OVER-DEVELOPMENT AND ABUSE CONTINUE UNCHECKED IN COVID MALTA
Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar calls on the authorities to use this time to plan for a better, healthier, post-COVID Malta.
The Malta Developers Association’s demands for less bureaucracy to increase investment in development and Minister Ian Borg’s dreams that more Maltese will want to work in construction, show that they are completely out of touch with public sentiment. The public has had enough of development which has destroyed much of the appeal of Malta’s towns and villages, undermining health and increasing air pollution.
Developers applying for high-rise buildings are ignoring the effect of COVID-19 on architecture says Astrid Vella, FAA Coordinator: “International studies indicate that high-rise buildings will become more expensive to build, less efficient and less desirable as companies and families avoid cramped offices and multi-unit residential blocks, having to share lobbies, lifts and corridors with hundreds of others. This will reduce the economic attractiveness of investing in tall towers both for offices and residential uses.”
Instead of taking stock of the new situation, during the pandemic, the construction industry continued with business as usual. Deafening excavations continued, causing great distress to people stuck at home. As landfills reached capacity, cowboy developers are avoiding dumping charges by illegally dumping thousands of tons of debris in the open countryside, forming veritable rubble hillsides along Zebbug’s highly-protected Wied Qirda, a fact that could not have passed unnoticed, yet continues unchecked.
In Gozo, clearing fields and destroying indigenous, protected trees before submitting a development application has become a regular practice. The latest case is a large field within the Xaghra Stone Circle. All this area within the Ġgantija AAI zone is highly sensitive for its archaeological value. Uprooting trees with bobcats, and destroying protected dry-stone walls without any monitoring by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage risks destroying precious archaeological remains in such a site. This abuse was reported to the Planning Authority yet no action was taken.
Public protests have made it clear that we cannot go on this way. The drop in the demand for property due to the pandemic has also meant that there is no justification to add to the overdevelopment of the islands and ignore abuse, both of which are undermining tourism, the true pillar of our economy.
Malta needs a master plan which encompasses demography and all social and economic aspects of life. An in-depth study of Malta’s carrying capacity, both as regards residents and tourists, requirements of different age groups, income and wealth distribution, how people live and travel within Malta is essential at this point. We cannot have one sector led by self-interested bullies, ruin life for everybody else.
