The proposed Ghadira road might well be the government’s road to environmental perdition, two years after its redemption on Xaghra l-Hamra, says JAMES DEBONO
It was during a visit to Xaghra l-Hamra in May 2007 that Lawrence Gonzi discovered the intrinsic value of the garigue environment after spending two years battling environmentalists objecting to a golf course he had proposed in May 2005.
The visit followed the ceremonious dumping of the golf course proposal in a hall packed by condescending NGOs. The U-turn had cost taxpayers €240,000 for the project’s useless environmental impact studies which ultimately confirmed what critics said from day one: that a golf course on protected garigue is unacceptable.
Perversely, in the election run up the golf U-turn was used as living proof of the government’s newly discovered love for the environment and its respect for civil society.
This act of redemption was the prelude to GonziPN’s “green” electoral campaign in which even some of the government’s most vociferous environmental critics fell silent.
Ignorant of Gonzi’s secret dealings with the Armier squatters 18 days before the election, the protest movement ushered by the extension of building boundaries in 2006 fizzled into thin air as the PN managed to rebrand its image from grey to green.
Promising to take over MEPA and declaring that “ODZ should be ODZ” – a clear preclusion against development taking place outside development zones – Gonzi managed to put minds at rest before the election.
Anti-climax
So who would have ever predicted a new road that will rip apart Malta’s last stretch of undeveloped countryside between the Danish Village and Xaghra l-Hamra?
For if the long neglected Ghadira beach, which has been ravished by uncontrolled coastal development during the past decades deserves protection, so does the Maltese countryside from the onslaught of urbanisation.
And roads have always acted as a prelude to urbanisation.
If transport minister Austin Gatt has his way and the road is finally constructed one should not be surprised if in five years’ time, someone will present an application for one of those gigantic service stations which have lately mushroomed on previously undeveloped land.
By 2050, the road may well end up dotted by development!
The dark flipside
But one might also be tempted to think that the government is planning a repeat performance of the golf course U-turn.
For after spending thousands of euros in taxpayer’s money on EIAs the government may well discover that it cannot build a road on a protected site.
Significantly the Ghadira road controversy has also exposed the pitfalls of the current system, where developers end up paying consultants vast sums of money to assess the impact of proposals on protected areas.
As happened in the case of the Xaghra l-Hamra golf course, the money will be forked by the taxpayer as the government is assuming the role of the developer.
If Gonzi is serious about MEPA reform he should set up a system where a truly autonomous Environment Protection Agency is empowered to screen applications before thousands of euros are wasted in the costly planning process.
Otherwise, one might well apply to construct a skyscraper next to Castille and expect MEPA to consider this application.
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