From Mrs L. Kreupl
Peter Riedhammer’s letter “Gozo - what’s missing?” (TMIS, 13 January) was very much to the point. There have been so many letters written over the past few years on this subject, some of which were written personally, but has anyone heard our pleas?
Has anything actually changed?
Has anyone in the relevant Ministries/Departments/Authorities done anything to improve matters on this delightful, wonderful island?
Does the rejection of the proposed water polo pool at Otters’ in Marsalforn mean that MEPA has had a change of heart as far as people’s rights and the environment are concerned, or is it merely due to the pressure of the upcoming election?
Fort Chambray, Ta’ Cenc, Ramla, Hondoq have all been discussed at length so let’s go to the other side of the island for a change and talk about Dwejra.
For a start, the road leading down to it is a nightmare that gets worse and worse each time one travels it. If you stop your car just beyond the cemetery, you can still read the vandalised sign (next to the No Entry warning painted on the road at the side of it) welcoming you to the Dwejra Heritage Park, which has been sponsored by various well-known organizations. (see photo)
One tries very hard to avert one’s eyes from the unsightly mess that is being made on the opposite hills under the pretext of filling the quarries, and all the paraphernalia used by hundreds of bird trappers and hunters.
If you are lucky enough to reach the parking lot without having to change a tyre, you will find a tarmacked parking area interspersed with soil or garbage filled “features” which will, so I have heard, be planted with palm trees - hopefully ones without weevils. Most of the tamarisks that were growing down there and which are suitable for the windy and salty conditions in this part of the island, have been ruthlessly killed.
On the way down to the Inland Sea, one passes a huge construction hole on the right hand side that will become another suspect building in this ODZ area! I have heard that a restaurant (without view, in this magnificent area of views) and a diving school will be built here! Or possibly a villa for someone special? Since the MEPA notice is placed out of reach to anyone without access to a crane or stepladder, we cannot be sure.
Further on, the gentlemen offering to take tourists “for a ride”, pun intended, around Dwejra certainly do just that! At e7.50+ (Lm3.00+) per person for a maximum 10-minute trip out to sea and back, it is a total rip-off. Tourists expect to go to around General’s (Fungus) Rock, or at least past the Azure Window but once they are out at sea they are told that there are too many fishing nets them to go there!
The pollution caused by these diesel boats in the Inland Sea itself is disastrous, especially in summer when the water is not washed out by storms. The ecological damage that has already been caused by diesel and sewage in this tiny bay is immense. It used to be pleasant to swim there, at least at the start of the season, but nowadays it is certainly not advisable at any time.
In other parts of the Mediterranean, for example Sicily, the boats taking tourists around are strictly forbidden from using their engines in bays, and have to use “man-power”’ and row once they are within a specific distance from the shore. The upside of this is not only from a pollution aspect, but the sight of boatmen quietly rowing in and out of the bays adds to the charm of the surroundings. Why can’t we do that as well? Imagine how lovely it would be to quietly glide through the tunnel to the open sea instead of being smothered in diesel fumes and deafened by a powerful engine. I have swum though the tunnel several times in the past (early in the morning before the boats are out) and it really is magic.
Mr. Riedhammer could have been describing the public toilets that are built into a wet cave en route to the Azure Window. (See photo)
There has been an attempt to smarten the place up and there are still several information points around that have not been vandalised.
When is the government going to STOP people destroying the environment by punishing them where it hurts most, which is by imposing heavy fines?
When are fines for littering going to be enforced?
When are developers/builders going to be forced to “make good” (by revoking business licences, for example) the damage done to green areas, bridges, historic sites, neighbouring properties, and so on.
Instead of just issuing parking fines wouldn’t it be more to the point to convict the people who vandalise bus stops, who bribe officials, who pollute bird sanctuaries or archaeological sites with motor oil or dump garbage in fields or valleys? Someone somewhere is barking up the wrong tree!
How many other people, now in the autumn of their lives, invested in this lovely sunny island years ago in good faith so that they could enjoy their retirement, only to find themselves now trapped in a dark hole that was once a sunny courtyard, or a quiet alley which is now a main road to a quarry or a garbage dump, or even worse, watching their home crack and disappear into a huge excavated hole next door?
There must be hundreds, but unfortunately most of them are not in a position to complain in case one of their relations gets the chop from someone else. It is simply a vicious circle of corruption and greed.
Like Mr Riedhammer, my heart bleeds for the inheritors of this island – your children and grandchildren. Do something now, before it is too late.
Lesley Kreupl
GHARB, GOZO