On Sunday 5 September between 8 and 9am, four trucks loaded with fireworks and accompanied by a police escort drove through the centre of Qala village, including the square, when the village was buzzing with activity – people going to or coming from church, restaurants and coffee shops full of people.

The trucks were loaded at Hondoq ir-Rummien from a barge that brought the fireworks from Malta. About 80 per cent of the fireworks let off in Gozo are made in Malta and ferried to Hondoq, then transported to the village where the feast is being held.

This means that this happens every week since there is a feast every week in Gozo during the summer. Practically every village in Gozo has a port or bay where the fireworks can be unloaded onto trucks from a barge.

It is insane that there is no safety control system as the longest routes are used to transfer this dangerous material through the residential streets of villages. Hondoq is a very popular beach and many swimmers will be near the dock area when the fireworks are transferred to the trucks.

If these trucks exploded or were involved in a traffic accident while driving through Qala village, or any village in Gozo for that matter, the consequences would be too appalling to contemplate. It is a recipe for a disaster.

These trucks have only two metres to spare on either side of these narrow roads, and not only are they going the wrong way on a one-way street for trucks only, but with a police escort to boot. Only the policeman knows what other villages these trucks went through to get to the fireworks factory in Gharb. This is a situation where the authorities have to think the unthinkable – that these trucks can be involved in an accident with a petrol tanker or, God forbid, a truck full of gas cylinders.

Only about a year ago, Mepa and the newspapers made a big fuss about a harmless piece of asbestos pipe found on the beach at Hondoq telling people not to swim or walk on the beach until Mepa’s boss checks it out because people might get cancer. Ignorance and stupidity reign here.

Yet four trucks loaded with explosives that could wipe out half of a village are allowed to use the narrowest of Qala bumpy roads without warnings or safety measures whatsoever. This barge should have been unloaded in Marsalforn and the fireworks taken on a rural road to Xaghra where they were going to be used, not to the factory where there are more chances of an explosion.

The latest tragedy could have been prevented easily if the government and the responsible authorities, and whoever else is involved, use some common sense, discipline and preventive maintenance.

Angelo Xerri

QALA