In a joint statement, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar and Moviment Graffitti have strongly condemned the Planning Authority permit granted, for what they describe as “the running of a motorway through Marsalforn Valley.”

The eNGOs stated that Martin Saliba PA CEO, “took on the role of Infrastructure Malta promoter in insisting that the road needs to be upgraded to European TenT standards, failing to admit that these are formulated for trade routes, which is definitely not the case with Marsalforn.”

“Instead residents from the area testified that the road in question has no need to be widened since within living memory, there has been no congestion except for the Victoria and Marsalforn bottlenecks which will continue to hold up traffic,” the statement said.

The eNGOs highlighted that “while Infrastructure Malta repeatedly raised the spectre of accidents on this road, this was not substantiated by statistics.”

The eNGOs insisted that dangerous traffic should be remedied by traffic management measures, rather than having a whole valley and its agriculture ruined in order to accommodate “reckless drivers by creating a straight wider road which will encourage more speeding.”

Infrastructure Malta admitted that no study of traffic calming measures had been carried out. 10,693sq m of agricultural land are to be taken up, destroying 300 trees and shrubs, of which 44 are protected species, the eNGOs said.

They pointed out that the project will impact a waterway, dikes, water reservoirs and cultural landscape “to widen a road to a village that is only inhabited for three months of the year. Indeed the traffic counts used to justify this project were taken at the peak of the Santa Marija week while no data was given for the rest of the year.”

The eNGOs went on to say that Prof. Victor Axiaq, ERA Chairman, stated that he was “not comfortable with this project which is being touted to bring the road up to EU standards, when we should be setting standards which are suited to our land availability.”

They added that, Annick Bonello, PA NGO representative voiced strong concerns about the tree transplantation plans, biodiversity issues and the concreting of country lanes. PA board member Gilmour Camilleri maintained that the project did not warrant such a take-up of agricultural land and highlighted the fact that while there was a lot of talk of Malta’s EU obligations re transport, there was no mention of Malta’s strong obligations as regards sustainability and protection of ODZ.

All three voted against the project, the eNGOs said.

FAA and Graffitti have highlighted the fact that Marsalforn Valley is Gozo’s largest valley system, sustained by wells, reservoirs and a unique network of centuries-old dykes that direct rainwater into the aquifer sustaining local agriculture, instead of allowing rainwater to run off into the sea.

They argued that, “the destruction of this system in order to further enrich a few road contractors and encourage more cars is exactly contrary to the aim of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), which granted €8 million to promote resource efficiency and support the shift toward a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy in the Marsalforn agricultural sector.”

The eNGOs also pointed out that “a €9 million contract to build this new road linking Victoria and Marsalforn, was awarded to a group of Gozitan businessmen, led by construction magnate Joseph Portelli, even before the permit was approved.”

According to the eNGOs, “this consortium is involved in the operation of an illegal concrete batching plant in Kercem set up in an illegal quarry, and is dumping construction waste without permits.”

The said that, “this is a confirmation, if one was needed, of the crooked manner in which these matters are being handled and further identifies construction with corruption in Malta.”

Flimkien ghal Ambent Ahjar said that it has called on the EU to demand full, independent environmental studies and investigate funding irregularities for this project to run a motorway through Marsalforn valley, ruining one of Gozo’s beautiful, iconic landscapes

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