This barb came to mind while watching a film put up on Saturday 5 June at one of the lecture theatres at the University of Malta for World Environment Day. A theatre without any windows to let in natural light and fresh air seemed mighty unsuitable as a venue to highlight the ideal marriage of highbrow human construction at this seat of learning which at the same time taxes as little as possible energy generating facilities.

The film dealt with just two rather far removed geographical areas from a Maltese Mediterranean perspective: Alaska and Norway. I could very well have remained at home as I did on 8 June and watch the Rai educational channel documentary which gave a more balanced geographical view of the malaise of the world’s large bodies of water.

The commemoration staged at the university if nothing else augmented my interest in the field though it also strengthened my resolve against the turning of this issue into another anti-west “Intifada”. The Rai educational documentary in contrast to the locally screened one mentioned that the drying up of the Aral Sea in Russia through excessive exploitation has contributed 10 per cent to the dust present in the air throughout the world!.

Mention was also made of the damage large dam projects foist on the environment as well as on native population as the three gorges gigantic dam in China pushed through despite qualms and question marks with the connivance of international bodies which elsewhere come down as a brick on much smaller infringements. At the same time, it seems that concerned and reasoning environmentalists are not against small valley dams which do not displace the native population or take an excessive land area. Thus, the Gozo Ministry’s fresh attempts to clean up the existing water catchment valley areas seems a step in the right direction, with hopefully the rich soil dragged down to the filled up ex-water holding areas, utilised either for agriculture or for forestation purposes.

My comments should not discourage the organisers from continuing with their mission to raise awareness of the need to protect our world’s large bodies of water. Perhaps at one time or other they could team up even with one or other local production firm and hold another cineforum on sustainable fish management, a theme also touched in the above-mentioned activity. Thankfully not for the first time TVM regaled viewers with a fairly acceptable documentary in Maltese, touching on the sea and fishing.

J. Bonett

Balzan