It is a pity that yesterday’s planned protest march in Valletta against lax government policy in relation to excessive construction was rained off.

It was a rare opportunity for NGOs and civil society to proactively send a message to the government that they can no longer tolerate the unabated construction on the island, which has been losing its unique character to greed.

Successive governments have been responsible for the demolition of old buildings to make way for thousands of soulless concrete blocks. They have been guilty of accommodating anybody who wanted to become a developer. Just think about it – we have more than 72,000 vacant properties, and many of them are not holiday homes.

The so-called ‘rationalisation’ of development zones in 2006 was one of the Nationalists’ worst environmental blunders, the impact of which we are still suffering today. To its credit, the last Gonzi administration had started making inroads, albeit too late, to contain the urban sprawl. This came at the cost of votes.

But barely hours into Labour’s landslide victory, construction tycoons were seen rubbing shoulders with party officials celebrating. They had good reason too.

Since March, we have seen the introduction of numerous planning laws, dubious amendments to Outside Development Zone policies, hasty permits, and land reclamation proposals, just to name a few.

While allowing high-rise buildings in some localities might be a better alternative to spreading out more buildings, a study has not yet been carried out on the impact. Do we really want our skyline to resemble Dubai, a city which, unlike ours, was built on a barren desert?

As Din l-Art Ħelwa rightly pointed out, new policies are being issued too hastily and are not being backed up with studies.

On the other hand, we have hardly seen a single initiative to protect the little environment we have.

The environment transcends politics. It is about the rights of citizens to enjoy open spaces, clean air and a healthy lifestyle. It is about having the right to be spared the ugly inconvenience of numerous cranes blocking our roads for months on end.

The environment has been transformed into a commodity for politicians to exploit and for speculators to make quick return. The government has no right to turn the island into a building zone, irrespective of the size of its electoral victory.

The Labour government has an outdated fixation that construction will solve most of Malta’s problems, not realising that this sector does not contribute as much to our economic output as it once did. In doing so, the government risks dealing a heavy blow to our most important industry: tourism. Cheap airline seats are not all it takes to convince tourists to visit an island. They simply do not like arriving in a perpetual building site.

It is pointless for the government to promise more enforcement against offenders when it knows it does not have the resources (or the willpower) to cut developers to size. Thursday’s attempt to demolish Polidano Brothers’ illegal structures was a rare positive move, but cynics have good reason to question its timing: 48 hours before a pro-environment protest.

NGOs say 7,000 building illegalities permitted during the previous administration are to be condoned or regularised, thus fuelling a culture for further law-breaking.

Many are claiming this is nothing more than payback time for the building construction industry which helped finance the Labour Party’s electoral campaign.

If no financial help was given, why do we have a government which is so willing to ignore the justified pleas of the majority to save Malta from the Maltese?