After long months during which less than sluggish progress was registered on the Salina canal, last July, after appeals on this paper, a push was given to the works and in a few weeks they were apparently completed.

Yes, only apparently. So far, work has been carried out only on the canal, and even this still needs quite some looking into. It does now look miles better and its smells are all but gone; but the water it holds has a stomach-churning colour and thick layers of muck are already accumulating on its surface. So if this is the water meant to feed the salt pans, someone needs to do some checking before allowing the harvesting of the salt. The ducks do not seem to mind the grime but you would hate to fall out of your canoe here.

Yet this is not the thrust of my letter. My complaint is that walking along the Salina coast road one cannot enjoy the scene across the bay, or even begin to appreciate the work done in these last months on the canal. What you see is a 500 metre stretch of a veritable disaster area: heaps of "you name it" that block your view even to the shore on the opposite side. Half of the whole mess is made up of high stacks of wooden pallets (bakers could clean this in half a morning); then there are rickety shanties, dilapidated rooms, solitary walls with hanging doors, a couple of abandoned (?) vehicles, scrap iron, PVC pipes of various sizes, fishermen's nets, tanks and huge sacks full of God knows what, rubble, etc.; all looking awfully tired of having being exposed to public sight for so long.

I am not including the two large black wood-cum-corrugated-iron sheds because these will need more time to replace or restore to a semblance of acceptability. Yet, the place will not look finished, or neat, before these are seen to.

In truth, affixed to the gates, there has been for some months a Planning Application for a Salina Rehabilitation Project. These last four months, however, little has been seen being done here. Someone could perhaps inform us when this project is expected to be completed; and in this the interested local council could again give a push.

Once we are at it, could we give a facelift to the rough and ready 10-foot bridges joining the shore to the pans? They are just a couple of feet away from the coast road and look really sad to have been left in that state. They could do with a pair of smart handrails too.