According to the Gozo Ministry, a study by a UK consulting company six years ago confirmed that the collapse of Dwejra’s Azure Window was “inevitable.” There are several points I would like to make here. Why did the Gozo Ministry pay for a report by a foreign company to tell it what any Maltese geologist could have told them for nothing? In fact, any school kid could have told the Ministry that the window will eventually collapse into the sea. The whole point of the exercise should have started from the point that this will happen and asked what could be done, if anything, to slow the process down. I’m therefore forced to ask if any such study actually took place. If the study did take place then why, given the fact that it was financed out of public funds, did the Gozo Ministry not see fit to publish the findings of the report? Does it consider the people too stupid to absorb the findings? Or was there perhaps a possible means suggested that may prolong the life of the window which the Ministry didn’t want the public to know about due to the expense? If, on the other hand, this study didn’t take place then why are we being told that it did and where did the money go?

If we are to believe the Ministry that such a report exists stating that the collapse of the window is inevitable and that working beneath a potentially unsupported slab is considered to be too hazardous this raises another matter. Given that according to them the Ministry has had this information in its possession for the past six years why are tourists allowed to swim through the window? Why are divers allowed to swim under water through the window? In fact, this is one of the specific areas that dive leaders take tourists through on their open water dives. Why are people allowed on top of the window as I myself have photographed the Azure Window and there were people walking around on top of it? Can the Gozo Ministry comment on why it has allowed this practice to continue for six years when it says it has known for all that time that it is a highly dangerous place to be near?

What we have here, it seems, is a situation where the government doesn’t see a problem with spending around €100 million on an unnecessary new parliament building, which will actually harm the tourist trade by spoiling the look of the entrance to Valletta, yet it unwilling to try and preserve a natural area which is one of the major tourists attractions on the islands.

James A. Tyrrell,

COUNTY ANTRIM, N. IRELAND