A report has just been presented to Parliament by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) on the state of the environment in Malta. It comes a full decade after the last such report and the reporting period covered only takes in the years 2009 to 2015. This report is restricted to those seven years apparently as a prelude to the ERA’s first proper four-yearly report which is due imminently. 

As Victor Asciak, the ERA chairman says in his forward to this report: “The general aim and objectives” is “to take stock of the status of our environmental resources, identify trends, make recommendations and identify priorities, and therefore to shape our National Environment Strategy.”

Prof. Axiak states that: “Only an informed public may be expected to participate whole-heartedly in any national effort and initiative to safeguard our environment.” He goes on: “Who can fail to recognise the simple fact that the efficient and sensible use of our land space and other environmental resources have become Malta’s number one challenge?”

The report reveals that while some progress has been made on biodiversity between 2009 and 2015, the other areas of the environment highlighted expose a depressingly deficient state of affairs. The major criticism is that the report fails to make the radical and fundamental recommendations needed to address the key issues affecting the “number one challenge” of land use. 

Neither does it make the long-term recommendations required for action to tackle Malta’s endemic air pollution – literally killing people each year – the huge challenges of residual waste management, the costs of soil erosion, the poor status of the Mean Sea Level Aquifers in Malta and Gozo, the effects of excessive noise pollution on people’s health, or the relentless increase in road traffic that lies at the heart of so many of Malta’s deteriorating environment.

The costs to the environment of more than doubling Malta’s population each year as a result of the economically welcome arrival of tourists are also studiously avoided.

Commenting on the report, the Environment Commissioner in the Office of the Ombudsman rightly highlighted the need for the ERA to take a more active role by assuming overall responsibility for collection and interpretation of information about the environment and, by inference, its active defence. He advocated strongly that the Strategic Plan for Environment and Development (SPED) should be binding on all government entities and guide all major projects.

Minister for the Environment José Herrera, recognising the current serious gaps in the government’s approach to the environment, also appears to be arguing for the ERA to be given more powers when it comes to deciding matters affecting “the natural territory”. 

Although packed with information, this is a most disappointing State of the Environment report on a matter of fundamental importance to people’s quality of life and well-being. While taking stock and identifying the trends of the seven years leading up to 2015, it fails to make clear and candid recommendations or to identify the priorities needed to salvage Malta’s threatened environment.

It is as though the authors are reluctant to confront the government with the full consequences of its helter-skelter drive for construction development that has gripped Malta these last five years. Speaking truth to power must be a key function of the ERA. It has failed the test in this long overdue report. Let’s hope the imminent first four-yearly report will remedy this.   

This is a Times of Malta print editorial

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