In an interview given to this newspaper, Front Harsien ODZ spokesman Micahel Briguglio made the observation that almost all of us make on a daily basis – Malta has become a permanent building site.

As summer fast approaches and people spend time at the beach, the statement becomes more clear. Looking at the skylines of Sliema and St Julian’s, the sheer number of tower cranes is overwhelming. It almost seems like there are more cranes than buildings at times.

But it is not only the tower cranes. There are mobile cranes, vans, trucks, excavators, jiggers, bulldozers and various other machines that contribute to the levels of noise pollution, driving frustration, general frustration, dirt, dust and detours.

Malta is indeed a permanent construction site. This is not something that happened overnight. It has been building up in momentum for decades, as far back as the 1960s. It is not the fault of this present government either. Granted, this government seems to be cosy with the construction sector and has pushed capital projects forward.  But the previous government was no stranger to giving go-aheads for monstrosities either.

One may feel that construction is concentrated in the Sliema and St Julian’s areas, but the reality is that it is everywhere. Building projects are being carried out in our towns, villages, rural hamlets and even in the countryside.  It is, as Briguglio put it, inescapable.

People have always been distrustful of Mepa, but it is increasingly being seem as a rubberstamp authority. So what is the solution? The most radical would be a moratorium on construction projects, but that is as likely to happen as Malta winning the World Cup. What is definitely doable, however, is for the authorities to at least make sure that building regulations are being adhered to in terms of noise levels and times of work. Builders could also be given time frames of how long they are given to complete a project, reducing the inconvenience for residents and motorists who are affected by construction.

But the real crux of the matter is that we need to establish what we want this country to look like in 20 years time and stick to the plan. It seems that every few years, the policy is shifted to allow this or that development to go through, while your ordinary citizen seems to have to jump through hoops to get a permit for something as simple as a window or a wash room.

Mepa needs to do some soul searching, and so do the authorities. We cannot carry on like this, it is simply unsustainable, both financially and from an environmental point of view. Malta’s economy is doing well, but we are not immune to a property bubble burst, like what happened in Spain. We must ensure that there is enough construction going on to keep the economy ticking over, but we must not reach a situation where one project is financing another, which would lead to no more available liquidity and an ensuing crash.

But more than anything, we need to do some collective soul searching. These tiny islands of ours, jewels in the Mediterranean, are very rapidly going to become over developed. Malta and Gozo will lose their charm and we will, in turn, lose the tourism flows that are very much our lifeblood.