Unfortunately, in the past years, Siġġiewi has become an attractive location for various dubious and speculative projects. The constant onslaught on Siġġiewi’s countryside is now such that its residents are constantly wondering with trepidation which new ‘investment’ or ‘project’ will be proposed to the detriment of Siġġiewi and its unique identity.

Since my first days of active political life, I have devoted considerable energies to safeguarding my locality’s countryside. In these last 12 years, I have faced the occasional angry contractor, the typical greedy speculator and a couple of devious planning bureaucrats, all busy wheeling and dealing with myriad planning applications.

However, in recent years, I have witnessed a significant increase in strongly objectionable developments.

The list is endless.

Some applicants have had the gall to apply for development permits under false pretences, while others have based their demands on years of illegalities perpetuated behind the back (or is it in the face?) of our country’s institutions.

The following are just a few of the developments which have been proposed in recent years within the limits of Siġġiewi: a massive cow farm complex, complete with a waste digester (courtesy of both political parties) and a chicken farm next to Id-Dar tal-Providenza, a shooting range in a disused quarry next to the Kirċippu residential area, a radar atop the Fawwara area, another shooting academy (sic!) just a couple of metres away from the medieval chapel and quaint rural settlement of Ħal Xluq, and recently a villa complete with pool and parking facilities in a field just opposite Id-Dar tal-Providenza.

We also had an area close to the coastal cliffs between Siġġiewi and Ħad-Dingli stripped of the protection as an area of high landscape value. This was done through a secret procedure adopted by the now-defunct Malta Environment and Planning Authority and endorsed by the previous parliamentary secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister.

Our rural roads and paths are fast being turned into a maze of tunnels flanked by high enclosure walls. With the connivance of the authorities, a handful are robbing

the landscape from all of us, even though nobody owns the landscape, since it is a common good that belongs to all.

And now, there is also someone’s grand idea to build a motorsport racetrack on hundreds of thousands of square metres of agricultural land in the area next to Id-Dar tal-Providenza.

I consider this proposal to be sheer madness. Besides being deeply insensitive towards the residents of Id-Dar tal-Providenza, it is also a slap in the face for the people of Siġġiewi, as it will obliterate a vast area of our locality’s countryside with serious and irreversible negative consequences on our quality of life.

This cannot go on unabated.

This article may sound to many readers as a never-ending rant. Well, it is not.

It is rather a wake-up call from someone who grew up enjoying Siġġiewi’s impressive countryside with his late father, a proud environmentalist who vociferously campaigned against a proposed cement factory in Ħal Farruġ and the infamous Għar Lapsi quarry, which unfortunately is still ruining the area.

Like me, for many Siġġiewi residents, our locality’s countryside forms an integral part of our past and our present, and we live in the hope that it will also form an integral part of our children’s future.

In my view, there should be a paradigm shift in the protection of our countryside.

First things first. We need to put an end to the extremely lengthy procedures before the Planning Authority in the case of planning applications that are immediately recognisable as non-starters.

It has become the standard procedure for applications with absolutely no basis for initial consideration, let alone approval, to take years to be thrown out. Unfortunately, quite a good number are now being met with approval.

We also need to be proactive.

Let’s give the much-needed assistance to the few full-time and hundreds of part-time farmers who protect their fields and their produce like mother nature would. These are the ones who all year round protect and value our countryside as a national treasure.

We need them to continue rebuilding rubble walls that have fallen in disrepair, taking measures to prevent soil erosion and protecting our valleys in a bid to replenish our water table as a perpetual water supply.

Our Constitution declares that the State is duty-bound to safeguard the landscape of our country. This is one of the principles which are fundamental to the governance of our country, and the State is under an obligation to apply it when legislating.

Let us not allow our country to be ruined by the few whose greed knows no bounds.

Let us safeguard what has been entrusted to us, in order to protect it and pass it on to our children.

Karol Aquilina is mayor of Siġġiewi and PN candidate on the sixth electoral district.