Like the Chinese New Year, my New Year started late and with firecrackers. The appointment as CEO of Mepa was a challenge and I picked up the gauntlet. Mepa too entered this year with a sense of renewal and expectation. The changes approved by Parliament on the Mepa reform were profound and culture changing. They now need to be implemented.

Public expectations surrounding the reform are constantly fuelled by the general consensus that the environment is there for all to be enjoyed. All too often, however, we diminish our collective responsibility to preserve and protect the environment. More often than not, people tend to assume that environment protection is the exclusive responsibility of Mepa.

Protection and enjoyment are the two sides of the same coin and, whereas Mepa must fulfil its mission and legal obligations, we should all endeavour to reach this same goal. This is not at all as simple as it sounds. In a national culture that is highly individualistic, collaboration for a perceived common good is often turned into a crusade against a person or entity. Together with civil society and the government, Mepa will continue to work to forge a better understanding and platform for collaboration for the protection and enjoyment of a better environment and quality of life.

Environment protection is a major balancing act and no one can achieve any goals, fulfil any mission or make any headway if one fails to identify the challenges and opportunities that the matter involves. Mepa, being the national regulator in this sector, must ensure that this balance is maintained with a view of reaching its targets and objectives. It must reach such targets and objectives together with the various stakeholders involved in the matter.

A major part of the reform was primarily aimed at enhancing and improving the level and quality of the service we all expect to receive. This includes both direct service requested from the authority and indirect service we all expect from the authority, namely a better environment to live in. Stakeholders who interact with the authority play a critical role in all of this.

We must all understand that the benchmark has been raised. This is why, earlier, I said that the change is also cultural. Embracing change is difficult; cultural change can be painful if the parties concerned are not all in accord of the need for that change. The choice was clear. We opted to work for a higher level of service all of us have the right to expect against retaining the modus operandi which had, arguably, served its purpose in the past. The basis of the Mepa reform is precisely this: achieving the quality of life we deserve.

But everything has a cost.

Environment protection and sustainability today form an integral part of the country’s major plans and policies. They also form an integral part of corporate planning and decision taking. Very few social, economic or financial components can be analysed without a thorough understanding of their impact on the environment. With this in mind, the interaction of the authority with the various stakeholders becomes crucial if not critical.

This interaction can only be enhanced if the authority endeavours to integrate and streamline its processes. The authority must be proactive and continue working in conjunction with stakeholders to provide plans and policies that yield results and fulfil objectives. It must, likewise, immediately react to new scenarios and adapt itself to reach the same results and objectives. The authority shall continue to enhance and optimise the qualities of its officials, whose level of knowledge and commitment serves as the authority’s backbone.

Undoubtedly, development, with its social, economic and financial thrust, is perceived by many as being the component that single-handedly poses one of the major challenges in this regard. To this end, the authority has improved the processing and determination of development applications. Stakeholders were and still are being constantly consulted in relation to the introduction and management of these measures. The authority must constantly ensure that functional policies and procedures are enhanced and improved in conjunction with stakeholders.

Improvement does not necessarily mean approval. The im­provement barometer must gauge the adequacy of the policies, the procedures adopted in the processing applications, the promptness, soundness and quality of the decisions delivered.

On their part, stakeholders must ensure they do not shift onto the authority failings that are not of the authority’s making or within its control. Juggling this balancing act is hard enough on its own.

Finally, the real improvement is up to each person in the choice that s/he makes. While there are benchmarks for improvement and reform, as I have just highlighted, we all have a cost to bear: to throw, reuse and recycle rather than throw away and continue filling our landfills, to adapt and change existing buildings rather that build anew and to constructively discuss and not to destructively argue.

Mepa will honour its mission and will help to create an ambience for better dialogue.

Dr Stafrace is CEO of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority

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