The Prime Minister is reported to have resorted to a treadmill as an analogy when referring to the economic windfall our country is experiencing and the insatiable demand for land resources that this brings with it. He postulated that “if you stop walking, you will fall backwards”, and that he will never “pull up the handbrake” by stopping the take-up of more land.

Although the Prime Minister did not make specific reference to Bulebel, where a staggering 120,000m2 (equivalent to 12 full-size football pitches) of ODZ and good quality farmland are earmarked for industrial deve­lopment, one can safely infer that he was specifically referring to this site. His downright support for the Bulebel industrial estate expansion causes consternation since it casts the die, as they say – it jeopardises any future assessment and study of the land in question that may be commissioned by pre-empting its conclusion.

In fact, Policy SMZN 02 (Redefinition of Bulebel Industrial Area Boundary) expli­citly recommends “further study to determine the agricultural value of the area before any additional industrial development can be permitted”.

Parts of the ODZ land earmarked for uptake have also been designated as an ‘Area of Ecological Importance’ and a ‘Site of Scientific Importance’, as well as a ‘Valley Protection Zone’ within the South Malta Local Plan (SMLP), since they flank Wied iż-Żrinġ, although this will probably not cut much ice with those whose duty it is to decide on the fate of the land in question. Numerous features of archaeological value have been recorded on site, straddling across different historical eras, from the prehistoric to the Order of St John and finally to British period gun posts and shelters.

So one asks: what if a mandatory study concludes that the land in question is too productive (from a farming point of view) to be sacrificed? Will the Prime Minister and Economy Minister Chris Cardona (who has also put his weight behind the industrial estate expansion) backtrack and look for alternatives?

After all, it is difficult to fathom that alternatives do not exist, especially in terms of siting the new industries clamouring for space within existing industrial estate vacant plots, which, granted, might necessitate government investment to upgrade the plots.

According to a public consultation document on the siting of SMEs released by the Planning Authority in 2002, a total of 85 hectares (850,000m2) of land were available within and outside industrial areas owned by the Malta Development Corporation. Is it feasible to speculate that all 85 hectares have been consumed since then, such that we have a chronic shortage or available land, when the Bulebel industrial expansion equates to just 7.5 per cent of the total industrial area available way back in 2002, or is encroaching on new land simply more attractive than investing in sprucing up dilapidated industrial areas like Ħal Far?

Proceeding with the extension of the Bulebel industrial estate would tick all the wrong boxes

It is heartening to observe that Żejtun local council put partisan considerations behind them when voting unanimously to oppose the development, thereby taking a consistent stand given that the council had voiced its opposition to such a development when it was first bandied about in 2006.

It is also heartening to see that the PN’s shadow minister for the environment, Jason Azzopardi, has advocated that government retract its decision to encroach on the agricultural land at Bulebel. Except that it was precisely the PN, way back in 1988 (through the Temporary Provisions Scheme) and again in 2006 (through the revision of the SMLP), that had included the ODZ land at Bulebel within the development boundaries. This was despite the thumbs down given by the Agriculture Department, which considers the land to have ‘high-grade agricultural value’.

Understandably, stiff opposition to the industrial estate expansion had originated from residents living in Ġebel San Martin and Mikiel Busuttil streets since these represent the outermost periphery of Żejtun in closest proximity (just 100m away) to the proposed expansion. In order to silence such opposition by allaying the concerns in question, politicians resorted to their usual shenanigans and simply redrew the map of the planned expansion, killing two birds with one stone by steering even further away from the Żejtun residential area and at the same time bolstering the footprint of the proposed expansion from an initial 63,000 square metres to 120,000 square metres. Now if that is not a stroke of genius…

And then there is that trivial, insignificant, petty issue to address… the fate of farmers working, for generations, the land in question and who have been rebuked and demonised for assuming a sense of entitlement when they were aware that they ‘have no right to the land’. As if making a decent living and contributing to our collective food security by working the land was a crime.

One cannot but anticipate that the same farmers will not stand a chance in hell, since the whims of ‘multinational companies seeking to invest in Malta’ are supposedly at stake here, especially since, courtesy of amendments introduced in 2007, the development of land allocated for industrial use can be fast tracked through the DNO (Development Notification Order) procedure, shorn of a full planning development permit.

Apparently, Maltese youth are the least inclined in Europe to join an environmental NGO. Environmental activism, however, is alive and kicking on these islands. The online petition gathering signatures of those opposing the proposed industrial estate expansion can be accessed at: https://wirtizzejtun.files. wordpress.com/2018/02/bulebelpetition.pdf.

Proceeding with the extension of the Bulebel industrial estate would tick all the wrong boxes. The government would renege on promises it had made not to further extend ODZ areas. It would foist further industrial development upon residential areas. It would play further havoc with our national food security by scuttling even more good-quality farmland.

Pinning our economic expansion on a further uptake of ODZ and agricultural areas is both a flawed and wasteful strategy. We definitely need to pull the handbrake as the ODZ uptake treadmill is overheating!

alan.deidun@gmail.com

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