Ruining the face of Malta

Malta is an already over-populated land, with way too few places left where one can breathe fresh air.

Building contractors are ruthlessly transforming the face of our island into a mess of pigeon holes. Beautiful, picturesque old houses are being demolished, with the blessing of virgin Mepa, to be replaced by flats, flats and more flats.

I must accuse the government of not having the slightest idea in what direction the building industry should go. Do we really need more flats covering our island? Everyone says that we already have too many empty housing units, so why defy all laws of economics and continue increasing supply when demand is dwindling? The common Maltese citizen is not gaining anything as property prices are doubling every five years and this trend is predicted to continue.

Does the government want more speculators to play around with our lack of land? Moreover, can our infrastructure cope if all these empty pigeon holes become occupied? I just wonder what, for example, the St Paul's Bay area will be like once all the empty land is built up and is occupied by well over 100,000 people during the peak season. I just wonder what it will be like during rush hour, if the infrastructure remains what it is.  

Who will want to visit such an ugly place? The rich people who are profiting most from this chaos will probably be on a holiday somewhere else, as they can afford it, but the ordinary Maltese citizen must find ways to cope.

The lack of government policy is ruining the face of the island. Those who have land and money are in a crusade to maximise their profits. They are spoiling the country's image forever, as there is no true environment and planning authority.

Now George Pullicino has come up with the brilliant idea of giving even more of our scarce land over for development. This is either plain stupidity or insanity. Why on earth should the country sacrifice more land? If we have more than enough empty housing, why create more? Someone somewhere must be gaining something.