Today the PN General Council meets again to bring to an end a process of change within the Party, kick-started in the aftermath of the last general election. Now that this phase has been concluded, we can really move forward. No wonder the slogan chosen for this General Council is ‘Forward’. Last Tuesday, the commission set up to analyse the election defeat presented a detailed report to the Party Leader, thus making it easier for the party to really get over the election disappointment and head towards the future. As Dr Anne Fenech rightly pointed out last Friday, this report brings to an end the PN’s healing process following such a massive defeat.

The report highlights all the issues that led to the defeat. Most of the reasons given in the report came as no surprise to me nor, probably, to many others. They include issues about which my constituents spoke to me in the run-up to the election.

The rebel MPs, Mepa, hunting and trapping, perceived or real corruption, perceived or real arrogance, the honoraria issue, the PN’s stand on the divorce issue and so many other issues highlighted in the report rang a bell. Unfortunately, all these together – in addition to the fact that the PN had been in power for many years – over-shadowed all the good work carried out by a hard-working cabinet, particularly in the last five years.

We now need to put all this behind us but not before taking note of the recommendations of this very valid report. Many of its recommendations may not be put into practice before we win another General Election. However, they should definitely be factored in when formulating our future policies, strategies and way of doing things. We cannot afford to repeat mistakes unless we want to remain in Opposition for a long time. At the same time, we should be careful not to end up giving up our principles and ethics for the sake of popularity. Doing what we believe is the right thing should always remain our benchmark. It paid off in the past. It should pay off again in the future.

Water, water everywhere…

But not a drop to drink – unless we keep pumping sea-water into our reverse osmosis plants as we have been doing for so many years now. This might be the situation in a few years’ time if we keep extracting ground water at the rate we are doing now. This is the gist of the message of a group of people – members of the Malta Water Association – who have been lobbying for a sustainable conservation of Malta’s ground water.

Irrespective of whether one agrees or not with all the arguments put forward by this lobby group on how the country could save its water table, one has to admire the enthusiasm and professionalism of these people. I should also add ‘perseverance’ to the list of attributes. Many times such NGOs keep marching on despite all the obstacles they find in their way, simply because they really believe in their cause.

This cause is one with which I tend to sympathise for the simple reason that water is one of the most important resources required by the human being. In the face of irrefutable facts, one cannot just ignore the issue. It is a fact that water is scarce in Malta. If it was not, how do you explain our reliance on reverse osmosis for the past 30 years? As the Association rightly points out, rain is largely a flood nuisance rather than an invaluable source of water. Recycling water is economically not viable and contributes to carbon emissions through the use of electricity needed to operate the reverse osmosis plants.

I really hope that the efforts of this and other NGOs supporting the same cause finally pay off, at least by getting all the stakeholders on board and by making our population more aware of how urgent the problem really is. If this happens, things will change faster than this group of people and those who have this cause at heart ever hoped for.

Shameful acts

In the week during which we celebrated World Environment Day, we had to witness a truly shameful act carried out in the darkness of night. The killing of the flamingo has dominated the national agenda for most of this week. Salina, the place where the flamingo was resting, is a magnet for flamingos visiting Malta as they travel between their breeding and feeding grounds around the Mediterranean. The perpetrator or perpetrators should be ashamed of themselves not only for killing this innocent bird, but for doing so while it was resting during the night. They are real cowards. It is to be hoped that the police conclude their investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. They have not only deprived nature of such a graceful bird but they have also shamed the whole country. They have also shamed law-abiding hunters who, in the public perception, may be unfairly linked to such acts whenever they take place.  

Charló Bonnici is Opposition Spokesman for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change.

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