Rehabilitation is the answer

A read through the pages of The Times cannot but leave anybody with a modicum of interest in environmental and heritage issues perplexed. People from all walks of life seem to be so drastically committed to safeguard this heritage that the state of disaster it is in begs believing.

The latest manifestation of interest comes from Victor Bajada and Joseph Cassar who intend to develop a fully-fledged new village in Qala creek, including a five-star hotel and yacht marina. This site is defined by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority as being Outside Development Zone.

This definition has the strange characteristic of meaning completely different things to different people. To MEPA it is supposed to indicate a site that is located outside the boundaries of areas where development permission would be normally granted. To the Maltese, ODZ means their only chance to retain any form of significant undeveloped areas safe from further human intervention. But to certain developers it seems to indicate areas where mega projects can be conceived and implemented in grand isolation.

I have not seen the project devised by Mr Bajada and Mr Cassar and their architects but I am sure that nothing they have in mind will do more good to the site and to Malta and Gozo in general than any effort to return it as much as possible to its natural state.

We cannot keep giving up sites just because at present they are not in pristine condition. I think many will agree that most of the country can be classified as being in that state. So should we give it all up for development? The answer is to rehabilitate degraded areas and not develop them even more and ruin them to a greater extent.

For all the merits it may have, the Qala creek project is based on the most mistaken of concepts. That is its greatest fault, and this is a good enough reason to keep it from materialising.