Nature Trust, FAA and Dwejra (2)

Victor Laiviera's letter on the subject of the sanctioning of boathouses at Dwejra is rather hasty.

For a start, the version of events published by some newspapers so far has been aimed at damaging the environment NGO movement by only covering a fraction of the issue, maliciously omitting to publish the full context of the Dwejra Heritage Park Action Plan. Had he made his enquiries before writing such a letter, he would have learnt the full picture which would have made his contribution more constructive, more effective and also fairer as unfortunately some newspapers cannot be counted on to uphold these values.

Had he approached us directly, Mr Laiviera would have learnt that Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar has attended more than one Mepa hearing on the subject of the sanctioning of the Dwejra boathouses.

Unfortunately we were not in existence when the sanctioning proposals were made in 2005.

However we have voiced our strong disapproval against the sanctionings, and in fact our comments at the hearing were taken on board and certain abusive structures or eyesores are now to be eliminated.

The only reason we had not yet issued a press release on the subject was because we were awaiting the outcome of Thursday's session, rather than rushing to print with only partial information.

We are very surprised that Mr Laiviera should imply that FAA has been silenced, considering that on the same day that the Dwejra story broke, we issued a strong press release highlighting our concerns regarding the threat to the Ta' Kandja water galleries.

As Mr Laiviera correctly pointed out, FAA is a non-political NGO, and as such will not be silenced, however neither will we succumb to pressure to take stands to suit anybody's agenda.