That this administration prefers concrete to trees and agricultural land was never a secret, and today it is a given. We have grown accustomed to scheme after scheme in which the environment comes out as the loser.
The list is pretty much endless. The sacrifice of virgin land at Zonqor for the construction of an ‘American’ university, the scheme that allowed old farm buildings on ODZ land to be turned into villas with swimming pools, the dream of land reclamation projects, the policy that allowed hotels to add extra floors, a scheme that allows people to pay to have their building illegalities suddenly become legal, the approval of skyscrapers without having a master plan in place, the uncontrolled construction frenzy … we can go on and on.
The latest controversy is about the war the government has declared on trees. All we’re hearing about lately is the destruction of trees – the uprooting of trees in Rabat, Santa Lucija, Zejtun, Attard, Balzan … all around. People are finally rising up and telling the powers that be that they have had enough, that the destruction must stop.
But the truth is that this war did not start now. In fact, it has been going on for a number of years. The only change is that it has lately become much worse.
The aversion that this government has to trees has been apparent since the first pjazza ‘embellishment’ projects – projects that are characterized by the obvious lack of greenery.
Virtually all of these embellishment projects have seen every last tree, every last bit of greenery removed from these open spaces, leaving them barren, without any shade.
Take Castille Square, for example. The new ‘square’ is practically a paved area with some statues here and there and no vegetation to be seen. A few metres away, a tree that survived the bombings of world war two was also chopped down. We were told that a new tree would take its place but this has not happened yet.
The Triton Square project bears the same hallmarks - a huge barren space with the fountain as its centerpiece. Trees are nowhere to be seen. When looking at these projects one gets the impression that government planners have a phobia of trees.
More recently there was uproar over the proposed Central Link project, which will also require the removal of a number of trees, even if the government insists that more will be planted.
Then there was the case of Paola Square, where mature ficus trees were obliterated with the excuse that their roots were causing damage to the surrounding area. A few saplings have been planted instead, but these will take decades to reach maturity. Until then until then the square will remain barren, a victim of the scorching summer sun.
This week there was outrage at Balzan as well, where two mature trees have been pulled out of the ground to make way for a road widening project. Residents were promised that the issue would be taken up during a local council meeting next month. It’s a bit too late for discussion now.
Some people have said that this was a storm in a teacup, that people should not kick up such a fuss over a couple of trees. But this is just part of a broader mentality where trees are considered a nuisance, that they should be sacrificed to make way for more concrete and asphalt, so that we can put even more cars on our roads.
The government occasionally boasts about some ‘afforestation’ project here and there, one of the latest being on Comino. All tree planting efforts are to be encouraged, even on Comino, but our ministers, it seems, do not realize that we also need trees in our midst, in our village cores and heavy traffic areas – this is, in fact, where trees – which reduce carbon dioxide and are generally beneficial for our physical and mental wellbeing - are needed the most.
But for those taking all the decisions on our behalf it seems that the only policy that applies to trees is ‘out of sight, out of mind.’