It is that time of the year when Malta looks at its worst. The flowerbeds in some public places and roundabouts do much to lift the spirits but the picture elsewhere is not pretty at all. Indeed, it would seem that in some places there is a total collapse of the cleansing service.
As Malta prides itself on being a top tourist destination, it has as yet been unable to effectively grapple with the problem of keeping the island in ship-shape condition all year round. The country boasts of steady economic growth but, though it is aggressively targeting further growth areas, it is shamefully neglecting to put its own house in order.
No administration has so far been able to set up a sound organisational structure that tackles the problem in a professional manner. The result is there for all to see: rubbish piling up here and there, even in tourist areas; sheer neglect of public places in some areas; lack of continuous maintenance of roads and street furniture; broken pavements; scruffiness and a collection of eyesores that give so many places a shabby look.
As the construction frenzy appears to be getting out of control, with no part of the landscape free of tower cranes, Malta right now once again looks like a huge building site, with developers – or many of them, anyway – caring very little, if at all, of the environs where they are building. And when the wind blows, as it often does, the island is enveloped in a dust cloud.
True, the weather does not help. The searing heat quickly burns to tinder the little green we have in the few stretches of countryside that have remained intact. However, there is absolutely no excuse for the country not to pull its socks up and try to get to grips with the problem.
The real difficulty is that public cleanliness has never been put high on the country’s agenda, mirroring an indifferent national attitude to public cleanliness, order and discipline. Despite the many one-off efforts made over the years, even at school level, matters have not improved much, if at all. Judging by the state of the environment generally, it would seem that a good number of local councils have gone bankrupt or are so starved of cash they are unable to engage even a few street sweepers to keep their localities clean.
If we are to be honest about it, we must admit that, in this respect, Malta has regressed by leaps and bounds. Yet, there appears to be no authority monitoring what is happening and, if there is, it is ineffective. This is unacceptable. Just as the much-needed upgrading of the creaking road network seems to finally be getting some serious attention, it is also time for the country to start thinking of revamping its image. Pleas to this effect made by this newspaper year in, year out have always gone by the wayside.
Perhaps the best way to tackle the problem is to divest local councils of their cleansing responsibility and entrust the job to a public-private partnership. However, the challenge involves the much harder task of trying to change the mentality of so many that regard every empty space outside their homes as a rubbish dump.