Malta risks being overwhelmed by a “tidal wave of destruction” if it does not implement concrete policies based on conserving the environment and promoting ecotourism, according to a top Italian environmental expert.

Grazia Canuto, who lectures on environmental crime at the University of Padova, told Times of Malta that the island is lagging far behind in terms of using renewable energy and ensuring that the air and waters are free from pollution.

“There’s a lot to do. The environment is the country’s spinal cord – I ask why so little has been done in this regard because Malta’s economy is heavily based on tourism.

“And tourism is all about selling the beauty of the land. A day may come where tourists no longer visit because they discover that the island is polluted.”

A diseased environment, Prof. Canuto continued, produces contaminated food, polluted air and, ultimately, sick people.

Man does not find his identity in cubicles

Malta could start by processing waste into clean energy through cogeneration, which is a process which makes use of a heat engine or power station to generate both electricity and useful heat.

Through a process called trigeneration, some of the heat produced by a cogeneration plant is used to generate chilled water for air conditioning or refrigeration.

Cooling towers used in manufacturing plants also need to be redeveloped as the energy is currently being derived from fossil fuels. This, she said, is very expensive and damages people’s health because heat absorbers trap bacteria and viruses which are then ejected into circulation.

Trains or cable cars could supplement the public transport system to solve the traffic problem. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Malta needs to redevelop its entire lighting system, both in terms of public and private use – including hotels. Light electricity in Malta is produced by fossil fuels, which in turn generates a lot of waste by-products which only feed into the pollution problem.

Very few islands in the world could boast of having direct, indirect or diffused light nearly 365 days a year. Malta should make better use of renewable sources of energy, such as solar energy.

Like many other countries, Malta has also been damaged by the haphazard building which boomed post World War II until the 1980s.

“High rise buildings with little light, surrounded by furniture and objects made of synthetic materials, are not in harmony with man and do not promote his psychological and physical wellbeing. Man does not find his identity in cubicles.”

Urban spaces and currently inaccessible ruins should be rehabilitated to make them accessible, usable and liveable through the concept of bio-architecture, which focuses on energy saving, ‘green’ buildings and green living.

Green roofs or rooftop gardens are ideal for Malta’s flat roofs – in turn, they provide oxygen, remove heat from the air and reduce the temperature of the roof surface.

Hotels abiding by certain criteria could be designated as ‘green’, giving tourists the assurance that they will be hosted in a green environment.

The problem of traffic, Prof. Canuto suggested, needed to be tackled through strengthening public transport with other mobility systems such as trains or a system of cable cars or chair lifts.