In a statement, Nature Trust Malta, the environmental NGO, congratulated MEPA’s enforcement team on its intervention to check the insensitive works being carried out by the Ministry of Infrastructure at Wied Babu after the NGO reported the case to the authority a few days ago.

Wied Babu is a scheduled valley protected as a NATURA 2000 site and as such is subject to the EU’s Habitats Directive. The Habitat Directive stipulates that any developments in such important areas should be subject to an appropriate assessment and that any development should maintain the integrity of the site.

The NGO also questions whether the “Upgrading of the existing walkway from Nigret to Wied iz-Zurrieq” was really necessary in the first place and whether such a project should have been granted a permit considering the sensitive and protected nature of the site.

The garigue has been severely disturbed and several species of protected plants in the area have been destroyed because of the way the works were carried out.

All efforts and finances available should go for its management and conservation rather than spent on damaging the valley and destroying its flora and fauna. This month, Nature Trust Malta will show the damages done to Wied Babu to representatives of various environmental NGOs coming to Malta to attend an international activity financed by the European Commission.

The NGO is concerned that misdirected and insensitive works keep being undertaken by the Ministry of Infrastructure, which has acquired a reputation for being grossly insensitive to areas of ecological importance, as evidenced by the unnecessary damage it has previously caused at Is-Salina marshland, another NATURA 2000 protected site, and various valleys including Wied Ghollieqa.

Nature Trust Malta insists that this ministry should be blacklisted when considering its future applications.

NTM says the Ministry of Infrastructure should be made aware that today Malta is an EU country and must therefore act in accordance with the Habitats Directive.