Environment Minister José Herrera has floated the idea of a “land bank” to preserve Malta’s unbuilt environments from further development.

The idea, raised during a debate with secondary school students marking European Sustainable Development Week, would see the government registering underused or abandoned built-up sites, particularly those outside development zones, with a view to “recycling” them.

Dr Herrera told students the government could commit to returning an equivalent area of built-up ODZ land to the public whenever a new site was to be developed. 

His comments came after students from different schools had voiced their concerns over the current level of construction in the country.

One student said construction had eaten away at all the open spaces in her area, while another from Pembroke expressed fears over new mega-developments proposed for the town.

Two-thirds of land built up since 1990 outside development zones

During the debate, held at the Grandmaster’s Palace in Valletta, students also gave their views and suggestions on other elements of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, including equality, education and water resources.

Three decades of ODZ development frenzy

Meanwhile, figures released by the National Statistics Office this week revealed that two-thirds of the land built up since 1990 was outside development zones.

Only 64.1 square kilometres of Malta’s 315 square kilometres were built up in 1990 – by 2015, another 10.5 square kilometres had been taken up within development zones, and a further 25.6 square kilometres of ODZ land.

This has shifted the percentage of built-up areas in ODZ from just about 24 per cent of all developed land in 1990 to 40.8 per cent in 2015.

The overall area of Malta and Gozo that is now built up has also crept up significantly, from 20.3 per cent of the total surface area to 32.3 per cent.

The amount of land taken up by landfills and quarries – 3.6 square kilometres – has not changed over the decades, according to the NSO.