Removing a road to protect a beach

"It (Għadira beach) will be a progressive loss over a period of decades, it won't be instantaneous but it would become progressively worse in the period, say 2020 to 2050, as sea level rise begins to accelerate.

"Also, it will be almost complete loss of the ecological interest in the sand dune system behind due to the lack of imported sediment and the fact it's becoming covered in scrub and so that ecological interest in the Għadira reserve area would be lost, effectively" - Kenneth Pye live on NetNews.

Prof. Pye is not a government appointee. He is a world-renowned geologist who has vast experience on beach dynamics, has held the chair of environmental geology at the Royal Holloway University while he has also held teaching positions at the Universities of Cambridge and Reading and has published extensively. He was engaged by my ministry to answer a very simple question: Does the present road at Għadira pose a threat to the beach?

His unequivocal answer is yes it does and if no action is taken to remove the road from where it is, the beach as we know it will disappear with time.

He has actually calculated that we have already lost some 23 metres of the beach and that the beach is being pressed between the high water mark (which will get higher) and the road wall and unless this is reversed the consequence will be constant beach erosion.

Prof. Pye also states (his study is available on the ministry's website) that the solution can only come with further studies but he was unequivocal in stating that, although the removal of the road as is today may present a threat to the nature reserve (which is below sea level), he is absolutely sure that solutions can be found that will save both the beach and the nature reserve. The government is also unequivocally committed to saving both beach and reserve.

What is ironic is that Prof. Pye's conclusion is supported by four previous studies, all of which reached the same conclusion regarding the road as being a threat to the beach - Volker Stevin in 1983, Vigneaux in 1988, Barthe in 1989 and Anna Spiteri in 1990.

So where do we go from here? The next step is further studies - which Prof. Pye estimates will require some nine months - within the context of a full EIA in the context of the applications that Mepa has before it providing four possible alternatives. I state again that we are not committed to any one of the options submitted and will happily go for the one that causes least problems to the environment and the beach. What I, however, do not understand is those who argue that only what they want is right and no alternatives exist to their point of view.

Contrary to what was reported in other newspapers, the government has not abandoned or shelved the Għadira road project. It would be criminal to do so because it would mean abandoning Għadira beach to extinction. We have merely changed the source of funds, moving its financing from European funds to national funds because the EIA required to be run on all four options will inevitably take at least a year (or more if Mepa procrastinates further in giving us the relative terms of reference) and that means that we will miss the deadline required to use EU funds.

There is no victor or vanquished in this saga but I sincerely hope that we have all realised what is at risk and that simply refusing to face reality will not provide a solution.

Dr Gatt is Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications.