Greatly disappointed by the Dwerja Disaster – Wirt Ghawdex

Wirt Ghawdex has said that is is greatly disappointed at the way the latest Dwejra environmental damage has been allowed to happen and it shares the same concerns about its ongoing preservation as voiced by other NGO’s.

The NGO said that whilst not disagreeing with efforts to generate economical activity on the island, any such projects should have as a priority the protection of the island’s environmental and historical patrimony.

Wirt Ghawdex added that this mishap has made it obvious that there is no specific and clear process of what, when and how such projects are to be managed and that nobody appears to have had overall ownership of the activity and it seems that the local council didn’t envisage the potential for harm that this project entailed.

The NGO said that it’s a great shame that Dwejra seems to go from one disaster to another because of lack of vision and it is not enough to keep saying that we are learning from these mistakes and this incident shows the urgency with which a decision should be made to create a management team to supervise all activity at Dwejra and other such ecological and historical sensitive sites such as the Cittadella, Comino and others. These management teams should include the Ministry for Gozo, the Gozo Tourist Association, the Local Council involved and local NGO’s, Wirt Ghawdex concluded.