Before exposing us to that “more that needs to be said”, in order that we lesser mortals “understand the full extent that (wind farm) developments might have”, Alexander Bonello might be better occupied getting a few facts right (TMIS, 28th June).

The “EU-imposed levels of energy production from renewable sources”, do not “start off at 10 per cent in 2020”; they end at 10 per cent by 2020. And they refer to all forms of renewable energy not just wind. To date, the government has targeted three to four per cent from waste and four per cent from photovoltaic panels. If only half these targets are actually achieved, that cuts down quite strongly the motivation for stirring up revolution “on the western flank of the Maltese Islands”.

But as everyone knows, government is putting its main effort into a wind farm at Sikka l-Bajda (3.6 per cent of generation), and as newspaper readers know, Blue H, the Dutch engineering company, is proposing a deep-water floating farm with at least the same power. That still leaves North Gozo offshore in reserve; the proposed Bahrija farm with its 0.8 per cent of generation will not need any extension into the west and northwest.

As far as the “disparagement” of Bahrija by the mysterious “many” is concerned, Mr Bonello confuses fact (mine) with innuendo (his). The dumping of construction waste on the garrigue, the large number of hides, the piles of soil, the go-cart circuit are there for everyone to see. They have nothing to do with any wind farm, nor do they provide any “cover” for one. The value of Bahrija lies in its wind resource, in the distance of the central area from Bahrija and Imtahleb settlements, in the presence of an existing mast farm with “footprints” that can be taken over by turbines with little extension.

Finally, Mr Bonello uses his “not worth saving” notion, again pure invention on his part as far as any connection with anything I said is concerned, in a childish attempt to force Mepa “to immediately revise its policies”, and open the floodgates of development, first of all at Bahrija of course. In that paradise, no resident would be refused “a small extension to an existing building” or “become the object of a mass public outcry due to the construction of a new villa (sic)”. I find the sudden switch from a defence of farming and other activities at Bahrija, to a suicide-bomber outlook rather bewildering. Surely Bahrija deserves much better than that.

E. A. Mallia

ATTARD