A feeling of being invisible

In his latest column (April 27), Minister George Pullicino chose to dedicate a good 200 words to the Energy Globe event that was held in Prague on April 15 and to which he was invited as Malta's environment minister. The Energy Globe award is the world's most prestigious award on sustainability and rewards projects from all around the world on their merits in making the world a better place to live in. Indeed, there were more than 700 submissions from 110 countries in contention for this year's awards.

In his piece, Minister Pullicino detailed the projects that won the awards in the separate categories: Earth, Water, Fire, Youth and Air with the winners hailing from Chile, Tanzania, Myanmar, Portugal and Spain respectively. All projects worthy of the minister's mention, without doubt.

However, it somehow eluded the minister's mind when writing this piece that there was a Maltese project in contention for the awards; a project that is a world first in that it demonstrates that it is perfectly possible for a hotel (or a large commercial building) to be completely self-sufficient in water use through the treatment and recycling of its wastewater. My HOTER project was selected as the national winner for the Energy Globe award and has already attracted considerable interest on the international scene with TV crews from Al Jazeera, Portugal, Latvia and France coming to Malta to document and film the project during testing and operation at Għajn Tuffieħa. The project is co-financed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology, which agency is responsible for the promotion of research and development in Malta and falls under the responsibility of Minister Pullicino.

And yet, this Maltese initiative failed to even get a nominal mention in the minister's article. This came as quite a surprise considering that I had actually bumped into the minister himself at the award ceremony and exchanged a few words. I also introduced him to the French winner whose speciality is energy-saving lighting.

Am I to infer that my project is an embarrassment to the country and to the minister? Is water not on the agenda of the minister responsible for our water resources? Shouldn't the minister be proud that a project part-financed by his ministry competes at par with the world-class projects he chose to highlight in his column?