Hell-bent on destroying Gozo

I find it unbelievable that after all the wonderful election promises and the fact that the Prime Minister himself will become the "big boss" of Mepa, there is still talk of developing the Ta' Ċenċ area, Ulysses Lodge at Ramla and the marina at Ħondoq!

And this is in addition to what has recently happened at Dwejra...

I do realise that there is a problem of illiteracy on the islands, and I realise as well that one of the elected ministers has a problem interpreting certain things, but surely the PM, most developers and architects, lawyers and Mepa officials do not fall into this category?

So I would like to ask the following questions:

Why is it still so difficult for these folk to understand the phrase "outside development zone"? These three words are really not hard to understand and I assume that there is a Maltese expression for them as well.

Given that the learned gentlemen and women involved should, and I am sure do, understand these words, why then is permission given to develop such areas?

Why is it necessary for NGOs such as Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) to waste their precious resources and time in tracking down and trying to halt permits which never should have been issued in the first place?

Why is the law being blatantly ignored and in a lot of cases outrageously flaunted (eg. the Lidl premises in Safi) and nothing is done to punish the perpetrators? Why are illegal buildings in ODZ areas sanctioned?

In fact, why are ODZs established in the first place if they are continuously ignored or overruled?

In Gozo, one only has to look up on arrival at the ferry terminal to see the ghost town of Fort Chambray. A project which was going to supply hundreds of jobs to the people of Gozo. Ten years along the line, the majority of the units are empty and there is no sign of the hundreds of employees bustling around, just a few construction workers moving destroyed lumps of garigue and crushed wild flowers from one dump to another.

The fort as such has, of course, been irrevocably destroyed. The few remaining original buildings and bridges are in such a sorry state of repair that I am sure the developers are just waiting for them to fall down on their own so that new high-rise units can be built.

One moves on to the Kempinski Hotel in San Lawrenz - a giant building now resembling an inverted quarry - in the middle of once pristine agricultural land. Another project promising hundreds of jobs in the tourist industry to the Gozitans.

Most of the staff I encountered on my last visit appeared to be unskilled foreign labourers, this included a Bulgarian barman and a Ukrainian waitress.

The amount of quarry stone alone that must have been used to build this monstrosity is a tragic waste of raw material and the quarry needed to supply such stone, a scar on the landscape.

One should also not forget what has happened to the Mġarr and the Andar hotels; the former must give a wonderful first impression to incoming visitors! What an absolute, unforgivable waste of natural resources, land and manpower.

The damage to the environment on this little island is already severe. Just look at all the thousands of derelict buildings and unfinished shells that have been left rotting for years. It hardly bears thinking about what will happen to it, if the marina is built in Ħondoq, the villas in Ramla and Ta' Ċenċ and the numerous other so-called "sustainable developments" that are on the books.

A final few questions:

Can Gozo be saved?

Will it in fact be worth saving if all this additional construction takes place?

Should we fight for it or should we just let it sink into oblivion?

The choice is yours dear readers...