George Schembri, chief executive officer, Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, San Gwann
Keep Malta clean!
The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) fully agrees and is equally appalled as Carmel Farrugia at any form of refuse or litter that is not properly disposed of, by tourism operators or anyone else for that matter (Tourist Operators Leave Rubbish Too, October 7). We cannot agree more that tourism operators in particular should set an example and keep their respective surroundings clean and tidy of any waste which might litter the streets and public areas.
MHRA has always strongly insisted with its members and all those who have the Maltese islands' image truly at heart, to maintain the highest level of cleanliness, as this greatly reflects on our inherent public culture and our standard of living. MHRA certainly does not condone acts of littering or vandalism which erode the work and resources invested in the upgrading of public areas for the enjoyment of both the local community and overseas visitors alike. Similarly, we strongly condemn any tourism operators who blatantly ignore the law through their brash and senseless attitude which results in tarnishing our product.
MHRA has in fact, on countless occasions, called on the competent authorities to bring to book these offenders, considering it unacceptable that such attitudes remain unpunished. Heightened enforcement is sorely required to address these issues of littering, noise pollution and illicit trading. Much more needs to be done to educate the public to safeguard our heritage and culture. We need to instil national pride in our youngsters at an early age. They should be brought up with a strong and genuine respect for our nation's unique heritage and culture. Our islands have enormous potential and could be transformed into priceless gems in the Mediterranean.
However, we still have a very long journey ahead of us to reach this worthy goal.
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Pule' Carmel
Oct 10th 2009, 21:07
Keeping Malta clean includes all the roofs, roads, and all the main floodwater channels, especially the zone around the Millenna shop at Marsa/ Albert town. The uncleanliness of the Qormi/Marsa floodwater channel with "dirty obstructions", such as cars, trucks, containers, trees and branches, hotwater geysers, mattresses, side growing grass, concrete drainage manholes, bumps and craters in the ground terrain, crosspipes, silting, wrong design of bullnoses and bridge support, in the form of 60 closely spaced/built bridge support columns, with their bases in the water flow to catch the debris, etc. This, and right angle junctions together with narrowing of the channel ,the further down you go, this is all unclean and dirty flow dynamics which increases the resistance to flow. All this was the reason why Marsa and Qormi flooded everytime it rained rather heavily. It was the human uncleanliness of design, and, I do not care, attitude of many people that floooded Marsa and caused the death of some of our own compatriots.
Joseph Galea
Oct 10th 2009, 17:17
The litter problem in Malta is endemic. Unfortunately there are far too many people who are so used to litter that they do not notice it any more, and so are doomed to perpetuate and increase it. There needs to be strong enforcement with serious fines that will make people notice. Fines starting at Euro 250 should be mandated together with community service penalties with the culprits made to pick up litter for a set number of hours wearing a highly visible overall. If the fines don't discourage them maybe shaming them will.
TRW O'Neill
Oct 10th 2009, 14:35
Given that, about 3-4 years ago; green wardens were to be employed to prevent littering, Malta by now should be pristine! However as we all are aware, Malta is filthy.if nobody is caught & fined for casting litter around, he/ she, willdo it again.It has been reported that Tourists complain about fillth, but are told by idiots.If you don't like it go elsewhere,this when Tourism is fighting against other cleaner places. WHY do people throw litter in the countryside? A friend of mine in Mellieha, rang the council last week on Tuesday, she wished to have some rubbish collected,the date given was the next day, we put out the items, & they were taken on time next day, as promised. free of charge. SO WHY ARE THERE PEOPLE WHO LITTER ?are they Mad ? They certainly wont be caught of course. QED