Preventing suicide

Reputable medical journals like The Lancet have been publishing research that shows that much of our physical and mental health depends on the quality of the environment in which we live. Ugly urban environments sicken our souls and make us distressed. Polluted air makes us asthmatic and spreads cancer.

Europe's top 10 environmental groups have prepared a memorandum addressed to the heads of state meeting at the European Summit later this month. One of their main recommendations is that governments should integrate environmental concerns into all policy areas and they demand closer and better co-ordination between health and environmental policy-making as environmental degradation has been identified as one of the main causes harming people.

The State of the Environment Report for 2005 states: "A better understanding of the links between environment and health in Malta is required to support effective policy making". The report calls on the Maltese government to draw up a comprehensive national strategic plan integrating and coordinating policies and initiatives that are decided after authentic and wide consultations with the private sector, social partners and civil society. It adds: "Malta will need to map out a sustainable development plan for the energy generation, transport and tourism sectors, as well as develop a basket of measures to address the nexus of social, environmental and economic issues surrounding house building and housing quality, availability and affordability."

The report also states: "Landscape is threatened by increasing built-up area, industrial and coastal development, taller buildings on urban fringes obstructing views of historical centres ..." It expresses concern that pressure will increase to bury more of our land under more and more vacant buildings. "This is resulting in loss of historic fabric, inappropriate design of new and restored buildings ..." To make matters worse, the report points out that while 51 per cent of Malta was identified as of high or very high landscape value in 2004, only 12 per cent of Malta's landscape has been formally protected.

Health and architecture

Like others, I hoped that things were taking a turn for the better when some four months ago it was announced that the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Heritage Malta and the Chamber of Architects had embarked on a project to draw up a National Architecture Policy. The project includes initiatives to raise public awareness about the quality of our urban environment.

This project is inspired by the Council of Europe book Architecture and Quality of Life published two years ago. The book states: "The well-being of its citizens, and thus the social structure of a society, depends to a high degree on a well-designed environment that is pleasant to live in. It has been demonstrated that poor residential conditions, inadequate transport and urban planning, a lack of communication and recreation space has a lasting detrimental effect on people, weakening their active participation in society, their productivity at work and their health."

The Council acknowledges that citizens get concerned about preserving their roots and about the cultural and architectural heritage when it is threatened. It calls for national architecture policies that "permit the holistic integration of the key elements required for the achievement of quality in the living environment including cultural, social, economic and environmental factors."

Even a casual look at our country shows that we do not have a national architecture policy. Most of us are crowded in the 23 per cent of Malta which is urbanised. Over the past few decades we have destroyed extensive arable land and countryside, often to turn them into unplanned and ugly urban sprawls. We have destroyed much of what past generations have passed on to us and instead are creating a heritage that future generations will not only not cherish but will curse us for!

Instead of reserving harmful policies that have allowed our country to become what it is now, government has drawn up a plan that is going to allow more of our countryside to be raped by more and more buildings. The government's decision to allow more buildings outside present building zones has nothing to do with sound environmental policies and a lot to do with vote-catching.

Attending Saturday's rally

We must stop this ongoing destruction. We need to stop it not for the sake of some abstract environmental ideal, but in our own interest. So on Saturday we should all be taking part in the National Environment Rally starting at City Gate, Valletta, at 10 a.m. The non-partisan organisers are right to describe this rally as "hugely important for Maltese civil society for many reasons, for a start the environment situation is at breaking point and over the next few months the country stands to lose even more of what little countryside and urban heritage it has left.

"Secondly, this is a testing time for the public to speak out. The Maltese public is paralysed into inaction; 90 per cent of it is too indifferent to take a stand, and the remaining 10 per cent, the NGOs and supporters are paralysed into inaction for fear that they will be ridiculed as 'erba' qtates' without the backing of the general public.

"This is our opportunity to change things. Jeremy Boissevain described our first initiative, the open Letter signed by over 400 people as 'the most significant initiative to take place in the Maltese politico-social scene in the past decade'. We cannot afford to stop there. For the first time ever, 16 major environmental NGOs have come together in a joint non-political initiative. It is up to us to make an impassioned plea to everyone to come out of the comfort of their homes and for once translate years of grumbling into concrete, positive action.

"On Saturday we should drop our normal routine and do our bit by attending for our sake, for the sake of our children and future generations. We must support those citizens who got together to form Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar and work for the preservation of Malta's rural and urban heritage. These citizens have recently written to the European Commission to make it aware of 'the threat to our heritage and environment resulting from unrestrained and speculative over-development in Malta'."

These citizens want Government to stop using the Malta Environmental Planning Authority (MEPA) "to help powerful developers to push through large projects which contribute nothing to the common good and which add to the degradation of our surroundings". In their letter to the Commission they refer to an inquiry report on the dangerous, large-scale subsidence incident in Xemxija caused by abusive excavations by a leading building contractor. They see this as a confirmation that "powerful business interests take precedence to the point of often being above the law, while the ordinary man in the street is rarely consulted and even then, ignored."

The letter informs the Commission that Malta is being overbuilt. "In spite of planning calculations that Malta requires 2,000 new units a year, the last six years have seen an average of 6,000 units approved, rising to circa 9,000 last year. This is the result of intense land and property speculation; it does not fulfil a need for housing or any other social deficit. It has resulted in over 23 per cent of Malta's buildings lying empty. Urban cores are being depopulated while the countryside shrinks at the rate of two-three per cent every year."

The letter refers also to "an attack on urban centres and the demolition of houses of great age and architectural value." And they ask: "Is it right that, owing to lack of staff and resources, MEPA has not scheduled any properties for the last four years, a fact that is to the benefit of developers?"

It is in our interest that we do not just sit back and allow the destruction of more of our cultural and natural heritage, as this amounts to our suicide.

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com