The Environment Raping Authority did not learn the lesson from the cry of the nation when it gave the go-ahead for the Mosta trees to be uprooted.
This time it is the turn of the 100 trees on the road to Marsalforn, which the Gozo Ministry was permitted to remove from the main road that connects Victoria and Marsalforn. The permit states that 37 of the trees will be removed and replaced with compensatory trees, while 62 of the trees will be transplanted. Can the Maltese public have factual research done about how many transplanted trees in the last two or three decades have actually survived?
The trees are being uprooted as part of a project to expand the arterial road and build a new route that will divert traffic from Victoria’s downtown. As per the Gozo and planning ministry, the project aims to expand the road’s width, remove hazardous curves, and incorporate walkways and a cycle lane.
In 2021, the Planning Authority approved the project in spite of hundreds of strong objections. NGOs and opponents, however, claim that it will eat up about 11,000 square meters of arable land and disrupt il-Wied ta’ Marsalforn, the largest watercourse in Gozo.
It is not enough to destroy what trees are left in Malta [the trees in Paola Square, the trees in Mosta, the trees in Ta’ Xbiex, the trees on Valley Road, Msida, to name a few]. Now it is Gozo’s turn.
This is unbelievable! What kind of greed and shortsightedness is this? Dear Gozitans, now it is your turn to raise your voice to protect our little beautiful sister island, before it is too late. For Malta, it is late already.
What a shame it is that we have to fight the authorities and the government to safeguard and save what is left of our environment, which is “no one’s property to destroy, but everyone’s responsibility to protect” [Mohith Agadi].
Men in authority are destroying our three islands. And yet you are blamed for the alleged climate change, when it is the powerful and the greedy, including governments, who are responsible for destroying our environment.
The corporations, the construction cowboys, and the government have not only destroyed our natural resources, but they have also skinned and exhausted our land instead of using it to live up to its potential. All this will have repercussions on future generations, the next children, for which the big boys should have made sure to not deny them any prosperity that ought to have been handed down to them by right.
