As Malta’s environment is in the throes of one of the worst bouts of degradation on record, with the administration seemingly unwilling and/or incapable of getting to real grips with the urgent need to stopthe rot, a small breath of fresh air has finally come along. It has been announced that the Planning Authority is finally moving ahead with plans to nominate a number of places as public domain sites.
The news is welcome even though, mysteriously and unjustifiably, the citizen appears to have been excluded from the process of proposing sites, contrary to all intentions expressed at first. The Planning Authority has drawn up a list of no fewer than 24 places it wants to nominate as public domain sites and has concurrently launched a public consultation exercise to get a feeling of public opinion. This comes over a year after the Public Domain Act, first proposed by the Nationalist Opposition as a private members’ Bill, was approved by Parliament.
Malta has already lost much to development, a great deal of which consists of hideous concrete complexes or buildings that have destroyed both the skyline and the rural and urban environs of so many towns and villages both in Malta and, increasingly now as well, in Gozo. As the building boom threatens to get out of hand, with developers all out to make hay while the sun shines, new challenges to the environment are emerging all the time.
It is most ironic, and tragic too, that in a situation where the environment is under constant assault, the government, which ought to be the ultimate guardian of the island’s heritage in all its various forms, appears far from anxious to lead by example. This was so evident when it made the wayward decision to allocate a stretch of a pristine coastline at Żonqor to an educational institution.
A heavier blow to the environment is in the pipeline in the shape of the planned towers.
All this, and the collection of sins outlined by the Democratic Party when it lambasted the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage over claimed inaction over a number of sites worth preserving, highlight the importance of the public domain legislation. According to this law, the first 15 metres of the coastline, the seabed and government-owned sites of historical and ecological importance cannot be commercialised.
The list of places drawn up for nomination as public domain sites include a number that have raised a great controversy. Top of the list is Manoel Island, which should never have been given out for development in the first place. What part of the island is exactly being nominated as a public domain site?
Many of the sites being proposed are of prime national importance and it would be sheer folly were the country to allow them to fall into the arms of developers.
The list includes Simblija, a medieval settlement still out of bounds to the public. The time is well overdue for the authorities to reach a settlement, preferably amicably, with the family claiming private ownership of the site.
Well done for the work done at Comino but Żonqor ought to be restored to the public in its entirety and no part of any coastline ought to be given out for any kind of commercialisation.