The battle of Balluta Bay

Election campaigns have strange effects everywhere. In the UK, the conservatives are being ragged for proposing to remove the white line in the middle of the road as a safety measure.

In Malta one of the contenders for the post of Prime Minister took time out to hold a press conference in the company of the shadow Minister of Finance to point out bungling, incompetence and shirking of responsibility in the matter of a drainage overflow in Balluta Bay. In which few places on earth can any candidate to such high office be found to occupy himself with such minutiae?

Dr Sant was perfectly correct of course, it was an irritating failure and it was odd to hear of the Minister of Health suing the Water Services Corporation. As far as the public is concerned it matters not at all what any court can decide as long as the bay remains contaminated. The summer is almost over and the swimming there is not what it should have been.

Quite possibly the Water Services Corporation was perfectly correct in pointing out that in accepting responsibility for maintaining the sewage system it considered the plans it had been given during hand over and no more. The discovery that the leakage was caused through a forgotten sewer unmarked on the plans was probably a sufficient excuse in technical and contractual terms. The people who were obliged to avoid their usual bathing place may not have been very interested in the excuse.

The Balluta sewage saga is much older than the recent discovery of a main sewer long forgotten and unmarked on the plans of our subterranean infrastructure. Many years ago Alternattiva Demokratika in raising awareness about the non-existence of sewage treatment accepted the assistance of Lega Ambiente who kindly included Maltese waters in their bathing water quality survey around Italy.

When the results were published, Balluta Bay figured prominently as a pollution hotspot. Instead of praising the Greens for their public service above and beyond the call of duty, the Nationalist minister responsible went on full counter-attack.

He accused us of trying to sabotage Malta's tourism sector. To underscore the fact that the bay was perfectly safe for bathers, he took the extraordinary measure of taking a dip in full view of the press. I guess that it was his version of conviction politics.

The only effect was to convince those dying to be convinced. A few years later under his successor in office the restructuring of the drainage system in the area cost the public an arm and a leg. Ironically, the new minister claimed credit for solving a problem of longstanding. He expected us all to have forgotten the scene of his predecessor splashing about. It turns out that both ministers were wrong; the bay was polluted when the first minister claimed that it was not and the problem solved at great public expense had not been fully and finally resolved. This summer's pollution has been the proof.

It really is no big deal at all. Glitches and hitches happen all the time and in the best of families. Does Dr Sant really expect anyone at all to decide not to vote PN because Balluta Bay stinks? Because Dr Deguara sued Michael Falzon to wipe responsibility from his plate? Because Mr Falzon found a plausible excuse?

At the end of the day this is a technical problem which will be fixed. It cannot be inflated into a major political issue of any weight or importance relevant to the question of who should govern the country. Does Dr Sant really expect any reasonable person to believe that under a future government led by him no such thing could possibly occur?

The Greens are cool about the whole issue of waste water treatment. Thanks to our crucial support during the EU accession process, Malta is under obligation to treat its sewage before discharging it into the sea as it had done since time immemorial. Even with delay in compliance to such obligations we are years ahead of where we would be without EU financial assistance and prodding.

We have comments and criticism to make on the way the funds are used, on the way this vital infrastructure is being established but at the end of the day we are glad we pulled off the initial gamble to oblige any government even one led by Dr Sant in future to end the disgraceful discharge of untreated sewage into the blue Mediterranean.

As far as I am concerned the latest incident in the Balluta Bay saga provides me with unexpected entertainment and no more. Dr Sant huffing and puffing about polluted bathing water when he had campaigned so vehemently to avoid any obligation to treat our sewage among many others, simply makes me laugh.

Of course the best joke of all is to find Mr Falzon still mired in the sewage of Balluta Bay after all these years. It recalls his splashing and his accusations of so many years ago. It makes me laugh.

He is my favourite Nationalist personality, vehement, emphatic, infallible, with a peculiar knack for looking down on anyone having the audacity to contradict him or his, almost convincing. The picture of him swimming with his supporters remains indelibly recorded in memory. It is why he and his remain only almost convincing most of the time.

Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party

www.alternattiva.org.mt www.adgozo.com