Last Saturday’s popular demonstration was a watershed moment for environmental awareness in Malta. A crowd of people with one common sentiment, irrespective of any partisan sentiments, met in Valletta and strongly expressed their objection to construction on any more virgin, unspoilt land on our small islands.
The catalyst for this protest was the proposed building of a university campus on the unspoilt stretch of coastline between Marsascala’s Żonqor Point and Xgħajra. This is not development, it is destruction.
This is not, however, just about Żonqor.
Żonqor is just another symptom of the stranglehold that construction contractors have on the political process in this country and how political messages are twisted and manipulated to fit the desired outcome. It never fails to impress me how any statement, repeated often and loudly enough, irrespective of its veracity, becomes fact for most people.
In this case, the statement, which everybody seems to have accepted with hardly a whimper, is that the government is pretending to be doing somebody a favour by building a university in the ‘South’.
The ‘South’, the mantra goes on, has long been suffering from being abused. One such case touted to exemplify the poor treatment that the ‘South’ got at the hands of the previous government is the construction of the waste water treatment plant in the limits of Xgħajra. The fact that untreated sewage was flowing into the seawater in that same place and that this treatment plant gave that area clean bathing water for the first time in over a century goes conveniently unsaid.
Talking about the ‘South’ in a geographical sense on an island where the longest straight line is shorter than 30 kilometres just does not make sense. What benefit to the population of, say, my town of origin, Cospicua, or my town of residence, Marsascala, will this university provide? That is an easy question to answer: none.
The problems plaguing the so-called ‘South’, which is not at all ‘South’ but actually the Grand Harbour area, are more social in nature and, hence, need to be addressed in that context.
Having established this complex big lie as fact, the ground is laid for the next step. There is one large tract of land, enjoying a beautiful coastline and breath-taking views, which provides whoever manages to grab it great opportunities for a killing. Greedy eyes have long been looking at it and we have already heard mention of hotels and other constructions being proposed in this ‘kill the goose that lays the golden egg’ policy of building anything, anywhere.
No one generation ever owns any part of the natural environment
That is why we protested so strongly last Saturday. We want, we insist, we demand, that the bulldozer assault on the few natural areas of countryside and seaside we have left stops.
Partisan politics was not the driving force, as political opinions in the crowd were as diverse as age, gender and the towns and villages the marchers hailed from. Unfortunately however, there are those who, blinded by partisan blinkers, have chosen to label this protest as being politically driven.
Another opinion leader even went so far as to attempt to denigrate what last Saturday’s protest was all about by uploading a puerile and petty post on a social media site, comparing the size of the crowd at our public statement in Valletta with that present at a Żejtun band march.
The forces which want all the golden eggs at once, and have their knives at the goose’s neck, are labelling her squawking as being greed. “She [the goose] wants to keep the golden eggs for herself.”
Of course we do! Of course we want to keep Żonqor and the few other spots of natural beauty and attraction to ourselves – ourselves being the whole population, obviously. That land, our countryside, our coastline has had enough. The attempted justification for what is to be done on the basis of what has been done in the past is no justification and just does not wash.
I am all in favour of the development of Żonqor and I now use the term ‘development’ consciously. I would like to see it developed as a protected natural area, with organised paths for the public and, yes, also for tourists and other visitors, to enjoy and admire when a short getaway from our daily urban hectic lives is needed.
Our generation is finally waking up to the reality that we have practically no countryside or public open areas anywhere, so we want to defend the little that is left.
No generation ever owns any part of the natural environment. We are simply holding it in trust (usufruct) for succeeding ones, enjoying it, but leaving it as, or hopefully better, than we found it.
Charlot Cassar is a Marsascala local councillor and one of the founders of Front Ħarsien ODZ.