Malta is set to open its 2021 summer tourism season in the coming days, in hopes of reviving this sector which has been decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

For weeks, the Government has said that it wants to promote Malta as the ideal country where tourists can safely travel to during the pandemic, beating off competition from other popular hotspots, such as Cyprus and Sicily.

The problem is that what tourists will find upon landing in Malta is one big hot mess of a traffic jam, caused by all the ongoing road and infrastructural works.

Our roads were pretty silent over the past few months, when the country was in semi-lockdown and most of us were staying inside. But it all changed when schools and shops reopened. The traffic jams quickly returned and is has been getting worse ever since.

The reality is that there are simply too many road projects happening simultaneously and all over Malta and Gozo. From Attard, to Burmarrad, to Żejtun, Santa Venera and Qormi, these road works are causing gridlock traffic not just during rush hour but at all times of the day.

Nowadays, it is a common occurrence to get stuck in traffic even at eight or nine in the evening.

And it’s not just the roads that are being dug up now. The Marfa jetty, for example, which is used by many tourists to board boats bound for Comino and Gozo, is now being demolished and constructed, just a few days before the tourist season opens.

The same goes for Comino, whose once-beautiful Blue Lagoon area has been dug up just a few weeks before summer, and which now looks more like war-torn Gaza than an idyllic swimming spot.

Surely, such projects could have been done before, when the situation on our roads was much quieter. Why have they been left for now, when the first tourists are set to land, and where the summer sun will cause so much more distress to motorists?

It is quite clear that Labour’s seven-year roads pledge was way too ambitious. Many had criticised the idea and said that it was not doable. The Government did not listen and said that such a massive nationwide project can indeed be done. Time has shown otherwise.

In this tiny country where vehicles almost outnumber people, it is just not possible to carry out so many projects at the same time. We are not saying that these projects were unnecessary: take the Marsa and Kappara flyovers – they have led to pretty impressive results. The problem is, however, that traffic jams were not eliminated – they were simply shifted elsewhere.

Instead of getting stuck in gridlock on Aldo Moro Road, motorists now get stuck on Tal-Barrani Road, just a couple of kilometres away.

Instead of getting stuck at Kappara, they now get stuck in Gżira or Sliema.

The reason why this is happening is that we have never had the courage to tackle the real problem head-on: reducing the number of cars, trucks and vans on the roads. To the contrary, our economy and lifestyle seem to encourage car use even more than ever, if the daily vehicle registration statistics are anything to go by.

Unfortunately, the Government continues to bury its head in the sand. Transport Minister Ian Borg has said that the Government will eventually be introducing a metro system, but only after it has fulfilled the seven-year road rebuilding pledge. This means that, until then, we will continue seeing projects taking place all over the country, simultaneously, with the same result we are seeing now – traffic jams everywhere, at all hours. It means that people, having no real viable public transport alternative, will continue buying cars.

Experts have warned that by the time Malta has a metro system, its roads will have become too clogged. Yet the experts are rarely heeded to in this country.

Perhaps the Labour administration should just admit that it was wrong, that a mass transit system is the real priority, not the widening of roads. And perhaps it should slow down the road projects a notch or two, especially now that summer is just round the corner.

If we truly want tourists to go back to their home countries and encourage their friends and families to visit us, we cannot offer them the heat, dust and traffic experience. If we do that, their relatives and friends will go to Cyprus or Mallorca instead.