Pledges of a rebuilding of the Marsalforn breakwater are being taken with a pinch of salt as successive governments fail to deliver.

This sentiment was palpable a few days ago when restaurant owners and residents of the Gozitan seaside village watched helplessly as huge waves swept away everything before them along the seafront in tsunami-like fashion.

“For the fifth consecutive day, Marsalforn seafront is in pitch darkness because, apart from the flooding, the waves are also damaging the street lighting system,” Żebbuġ deputy mayor, Daniel Cordina, wrote on his Facebook page.

His comment was backed by footage taken on Monday evening showing restaurant patrons with their feet immersed in water due to the waves gushing in at regular intervals.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna announced in the 2019 Budget speech in October this year would see “the conclusion of plans to finally rebuild the Marsalforn breakwater”.

Yet, this commitment was met with scepticism as, too many times in the past, promises to address the situation were made only for such pledges never to materialise.

The absence of a breakwater in Marsalforn is leaving the popular Gozitan locality completely exposed to the elements.The absence of a breakwater in Marsalforn is leaving the popular Gozitan locality completely exposed to the elements.

Plans to reconstruct the breakwater go back to 2010, shortly after inclement weather completely destroyed an old jetty on the Qbajjar side of the bay, which had the dual function of safeguarding the port from northwesterly and northeasterly rough seas.

In 2011, the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs issued a proposal for public consultation on the strength of a number of studies. At the time, it had been proposed to construct a submerged breakwater across the bay, extend the small sandy beach to a width of 20 metres, build a sea wall along the west side of the bay to prevent further erosion and upgrade storm water channels.

Seafront is in pitch darkness

Under this plan, work would have started in the summer of 2012 and completed the following year. For some reason, however, these plans remained on paper and were seemingly shelved following the change of government in 2013, even though the Labour Party had pledged to construct a breakwater.

Restaurant owners who spoke to this newspaper but preferred to remain anonymous expressed frustration about the government’s lack of urgency on the matter.

“We have now resigned ourselves to a situation whereby we are at the complete mercy of the elements,” they said.

On his part, Mr Cordina questioned the reason why the Gozo Ministry put the plan back on the drawing board, thus further delaying the project.

“It seems money spent on the studies carried out in 2011 has gone down the drain,” he remarked.

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