The Xaghra council said this morning it had never been officially informed by any authority that the GAIA Foundation was responsible for the management of Ramla l-Hamra Bay and on which basis it had been given this responsibility.
The council said that the bay was, for the whole of last summer, full of stones and seaweed in spite of the many complaints by visitors, including foreign journalists who took up the matter with the tourism authorities and the council last year.
The council said that to avoid a repetition, a month ago it requested the Gozo Ministry for assistance to clean up the bay before the summer season.
The ministry told the council that, in spite of all its efforts to remove this inconvenience, there was a problem since the work required Mepa clearance because of the sensitivity of the site.
The council issued a statement last week in which it complained over the stones and accused the authority of dragging its feet to issue a permit for the stones to be cleared.
Mepa yesterday said it did not receive any applications from the Xaghra council or anyone else for the removal of large quantities of stones from the bay.
It also questioned why it was being dragged into this issue, when the site was managed by the GAIA Foundation.
The council said this morning that Ramla was the only sandy beach in Gozo. It seemed, it said, that Mepa did not object to the beach being cleaned for the summer. So it requested the necessary clearance to be given immediately for the stones to be removed.
The council said it was convinced this could be done while protecting and conserving the environmental value of the bay.
GAIA FOUNDATION REACTION
Gaia director Rudolf Ragonesi said the solution was not to remove the stones from the beach, as these formed an integral part of the Maltese islands' only remaining intact sand dune.
He said the boulders, which extended 30 metres into the shore, were "most probably not pushed up by the sea" but were uncovered by strong winds. This process, he said, was a regular occurrence and nature itself could solve the problem within weeks.
"This happened last year as well, and we had addressed the problem by placing the rocks into clusters to avoid inconvenience for visitors. No one complained last year though.
"Also, allowing people to remove stones from the area would open the door for people to start using these for construction, which would be bad for the preservation of the site," Dr Ragonesi said.
Meanwhile, representatives from Gaia and Mepa met on site and guidelines on the way these stones should be dealt with are expected to be handed to the NGO today.