Six NGOs are supporting the letter that Din l-Art Ħelwa sent to the Prime Minister last week appealing for him to end rapid environmental degradation.
Friends of the Earth (Malta), Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Nature Trust, Birdlife Malta, the Ramblers Association and the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement are backing the DLĦ initiative, adding their voice to the demand for increased environmental protection against the flood of development.
When contacted, Environment Minister Leo Brincat would only say the “government will be replying in due course”. Questions sent to the Office of the Prime Minister remained unanswered at the time of writing.
Last week, DLĦ sent an open letter to Joseph Muscat calling for adequate plans to stem rampant development. The letter was signed by of its six former and serving presidents.
This was the first time in 50 years of the organisation’s work to protect Malta’s environmental and cultural heritage that the NGO felt compelled to roll out such an initiative, DLĦ said in the letter.
In support, Friends of the Earth said that it was high time the government fulfilled pre-electoral promises it made to protect the environment.
“Our environment has suffered at the hands of politicians and the construction industry whose short financial and political gains have bulldozed over other ethical considerations resulting in a culture of abuse and illegalities,” chairman Martin Galea de Giovanni said.
ODZ is being stretched like a rubber band. Environment is clearly not a priority for this government
In its letter, DLĦ said its concerns were the result of a string of policies introduced by the planning authority in the absence of a structure plan to guide development.
By removing the need for essential decisions on development and land use from the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) and inserting them in local plans instead, the government was trying to ensure land use until 2020 would no longer be determined by Parliament but by a minister, it said. Nature Trust also supported this stand, with executive president Vince Attard expressing grave concern on building in outside development zones.
“ODZ is being stretched like a rubber band. Environment is clearly not a priority for this government,” he said.
He pointed out the country was losing its natural corridors for wildlife, risking that only pockets of natural habitat remain in which nothing could be conserved.
The Malta Organic Agriculture Movement agreed on this point.
“Our urban and rural environment is under constant threat from excessive development and abuse by developers seeking quick get-rich-schemes. Good agricultural land is being eroded on a daily basis,” it said.
FAA, Friends of the Earth and the Ramblers Association listed other pressing issues of land abuse, which have also been of grave concern over a number of years.
“They include the uncontrolled proliferation of illegal boathouses, the expansion of hotels on protected sites and the illegal expansion of beach concessions.
“Kiosks, bars and restaurants are encroaching on promenades illegally, without compensating the public,” the NGOs said.