I started the weekend with a clean-up with Ambjent Malta, led by the mayor of Gzira, Conrad Borg Manché.

This clean-up was discussed midweek between the two of us and people were invited with very short notice. Still we ended up with a good group early Saturday morning. Not only did we clean up the mess, but we also prevented this situation from happening again by closing off the access to the room that was being filled with litter.

Thanks to Cane Vella from Get Trashed Malta, we also managed to educate the person who we learnt was using this room in an inappropriate way. In a country were enforcement is lacking in too many cases, education is a powerful tool to beat the ignorance. Telling someone they are doing wrong and punish them will hurt them for sure, but if we never explain why it’s wrong, the chances of a repetition decreases.

After several hours of cleaning up Wied Qirda, we had lunch together before taking off to Qalet Marku. Cane and I had the opportunity to guide the chairman of Ambjent Malta, on a Saturday, all around the peninsula to highlight the bad shape it is in.

Let me quote the Central Malta Local Plan from 2006. “12.1.12: The coastal area of Naxxar is of high ecological, scientific and scenic importance and is identified in the Coastal Strategy Paper as a predominantly undeveloped and natural rural coastline. It is also an interesting landscape that offers a typical visual perspective of the Mediterranean coast. The main aim of the policy is to conserve and safeguard the natural and cultural value of the protected coastal areas. The tourism sector is increasingly acknowledging the benefits of retaining and protecting the natural coastline, which portrays the beauty of the Mediterranean coastal setting and landscape in its original state as a tourist product in its own right. In this case, this part of the coast is of strategic importance since it is the only remaining open coastal gap between the heavily urbanised areas of Pembroke and Qawra”.

It sounds beautiful, right? Especially this part - “It is also an interesting landscape that offers a typical visual perspective of the Mediterranean coast”.

I'm not sure how many of you readers have been at Qalet Marku lately, but it's nothing less than a war-zone. There are three paths to go to the tower; left, middle or right.

Imagine the following scenario, you have seen the amazing photos of Qalet Marku on internet (being a tourist or local) and you decide to go there. You enter the peninsula seeing lots of caravans taking over the whole coastline doing open fires, burning wooden pallets. You choose the left path to the tower, just to encounter illegal buildings and being told off for passing by. You decide to instead go for the middle path and enter what seems more like a mini-Maghtab.

Wherever you look there are big piles of construction waste, every single centimeter covered. At this point you will start losing interest in going to the beautiful tower near the coastline, but you give it one last try and choose the right path. The right path is the worst one with garbage being burnt all along it. The garbage being burnt consists of paint buckets, plastic bottles, construction waste, clothes, BBQ leftovers such as animal carcasses. At this point, any person would just turn back and never return.

Yes, what you just read is the reality of the “Protected Natural Coastal Area of Malta”.  So why do people dump their construction waste there? During several clean-ups I have found proof that the some cars entering the peninsula to dump waste are illegal companies, simply not registered ones. The only issue here isn’t the loss of taxes, but the additional issue is that without the proper permits they simply can’t get rid of the construction waste in a legal way. So they choose the other way and the result is devastating.

Still, during this weekend we beat so many odds. People across parties and different backgrounds sitting around one table discussing in a civil manner, working for one cause, with a smile on their faces. When it comes to the environment, we can’t take into consideration what political color we have. It needs our unconditional attention and we should put our pride aside. It’s time for the politicians to cheer each other when doing well, and on the contrary challenge each other when not agreeing. What can’t be left out is the respect and willingness to communicate.

This weekend gave me hope, that we have politicians out there willing to walk the walk and also giving credit to and believing in their citizens. It was indeed a fresh breeze and I hope it picks up.