I was intrigued by the articles by Bertrand Borg and Anne Zammit about the proposed new works at Marsalforn, particularly the replenishing of the beach.

Marsalforn always had a wide beach with sand and pebbles, which I remember very well as a boy in the 1930s and of which I have published several photos.

The beach was even wider at the turn of the century and I had published an 1899 watercolour drawing of it by Sir Arturo Mercieca kindly given to me by his son Adrian.

The beach was alluvial and was regularly replenished by the valley which drained a large area of Gozo, bringing down a considerable amount of sand, cobbles and small boulders which were rounded by friction and later by wave action. The silt and clay were deposited way out while the more durable coralline limestone and greensand formed the unique coloured pebbly beach, the glory of Marsalforn.

When nature is allowed to take its course, the shoreline keeps moving seawards. I have seen Selinus in Sicily and Miletus in Asia Minor, where the old harbours are now kilometres inland from the sea.

But here the balance of nature was disturbed. First the valley was put in a straitjacket, then we had the infamous blokki and damming of the valley some 500 metres upstream. The valley now only brings down driftwood and plastic bottles.

Without replenishment the beach has rapidly disappeared, the sea has become deeper and the waves have become higher. The promenade was later widened but the waves still reach the houses and drench unwary passers-by.

I am all for the replenishment, or restoration, of the beach, provided the material used is the best coralline limestone of which there is plenty in the disused quarry at Ħondoq ir-Rummien, which I understand is government-owned.

But I think that a width of 20 metres would be out of scale with the little bay. I would say half that width is more than enough, but wave erosion would have to be allowed for, and a lot will depend on the type of sub-merged breakwater that is to be constructed.