NGOs urge the public to join Saturday’s national protest in Valletta

by Gozo News · June 15, 2015

NGOs urge the public to join Saturday's national protest in Valletta Twenty-one non-governmental organisations, many of which are not strictly environment organisations, this morning held a joint press conference at Dar Manwel Magri, the Jesuit house, regarding the many environmental issues in Malta.

They urged the public to attend next Saturday’s environment rally which, they said, “is so important for the future of the environment.” The public protest is being organised by Front Harsien ODZ.

Astrid Vella, spokesperson for Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar said, “for the past decades, the scientific community has been demonstrating that contact with nature in parks, forests, countryside, and coasts has a beneficial effect on mental/ psychological health, concentration, healing, heart rate, levels of stress, blood pressure, pulmonary conditions and obesity/diabetes.”

“Besides these benefits, Malta’s tourism industry is built on our historic and rural landscapes which, a key element of our national identity. Indeed, Malta’s Constitution states in Article 9: “The State shall safeguard the landscape and the historical and artistic patrimony of the Nation” and yet, the State’s initiatives over the past decade have shown it to be anything but the protector of our landscapes, which are now under attack in several sites, including Zonqor, Ghaxaq, Santa Lucia, Mosta, Qrendi, Ghadira and Qala. Not even Comino, a Natura 2000 site is spared, as the threat of development looms over it too,” Ms Vella said.

“Instead of valuing our unique landscapes as a health-giving contributor to the economy, our short-sighted politicians only see Out of Development Zones as a cash-cow, to be exploited when alternative disturbed sites for projects exist, albeit at prices and conditions that are less profitable to the development lobby.”

Ms Vella stated that “while politicians have conveniently used MEPA as a screen, MEPA has its own responsibility to bear. Instead of fulfilling its role as the planning and environment regulator and guardian in the interest of the nation, MEPA has aligned itself with the political interests of the government of the day, replacing the Structure Plan with the SPED which will allow far more development in the countryside. In sourcing land for the Sadeen developer and overseeing meetings as part of the political establishment, MEPA has committed a grave conflict of interest, casting itself as facilitator, rather than regulator of development.”

“FAA calls for good governance in managing Malta’s scant environmental resources with planning based on impartial studies, and not political expedience or profit.”

Ms Vella added, “it is high time that a legal remedy must be found to give the citizen legal standing, rights and remedies to protect the environment. Public action possible in other spheres has been denied to the realm of environmental protection, as the constitutional clause safeguarding landscapes is followed by: “The provisions of this Chapter shall not be enforceable in any court.”

FAA calls on all political parties or groups to take immediate steps to remedy this, Ms Vella said that, “by deleting the above clause and declaring areas of high landscape and historic value permanently protected by legislation that can only be changed by a two-thirds parliamentary majority. “A court or body made up of persons of known integrity to adjudicate cases of environmental abuse needs to be set up along with a strong enforcement arm and a revised SPED.”

“FAA reminds the public that Malta’s heritage and landscapes are to be protected by all, and urges the public to attend the environment protest this Saturday 20th June, to pass the message that an increasingly strong lobby will not accept the trampling of our rights to a healthy environment,” Ms Vella concluded.

Moviment Graffitti, said that “besides the proposed Zonqor development on ODZ land, the application to build a hotel at Ghadira bay and the Mosta shooting range present a number of other concerns.

“Moviment Graffitti added that it, is against the privatisation of open space and strongly opposes projects that involve the transfer of public land to private companies.

It stated, “projects like Portomaso and SmartCity were, essentially, a land-grab whereby public resources were given to private companies and public land was transformed into private space. The Zonqor development and others such as the Ghadira Bay Hotel and Mosta shooting range would constitute yet another massive grab of public space, this time to be used for the interests and profits of speculators such as Sadeen.”

” Moreover,” the NGO said, “the private University cannot be considered a real investment in educational development, since access will be restricted to a tiny minority of rich families. Educational development is only achieved when there is free and accessible quality education for all – which is the direct opposite to what is being proposed by Sadeen’s University.”