Ever since the road from Luqa to Golden Bay was built in 2006 and the road linking Manikata to the Mellieħa bypass was resurfaced, it became abundantly clear that Manikata would become a ‘drive through’ to the detriment of the residents’ safety and the tranquillity of this village.

Do we ever look beyond the tip of our nose whenever we do anything?

We talk about our unique island of Gozo as a destination (a bridge or tunnel has recently been mentioned!),we talk about the great sandy beaches in the north of our islands, the Blue Lagoon, etc., and guess what – apart from the narrow winding access from Xemxija hill, the other favourite is... yes, you got it!... let us all drive through Manikata as the little main street is less than four metres wide in places and winds past the only grocer here and the two churches.

This route now attracts buses, trucks full of construction material, concrete mixers, cranes, lorries speeding up to catch the Gozo ferry, etc.

I did warn you about strategy and we did it again. To my astonishment, we have just built a road connecting Popeye Village to this road so we can pile up more traffic onto the crumbling infrastructure of Manikata.

Do I hear of a government strategist working on the Manikata bypass by any chance, before we build the Mellieħa Bay bypass or perhaps even the tunnel to Gozo?

The solution is quite simple: continue the road coming down by the aqueduct behind Manikata church to go straight through linking to the existing eastern access road to Manikata instead of sending all the traffic past Manikata church and into the village.