On Monday, Minister for the Environment, Energy and Enterprise Miriam Dalli officially launched the Project Green agency, which has been entrusted with delivering the government’s electoral pledge to spend €700 million over 7 years for environmental projects. 

“Varying from the larger green open spaces, to spaces within the community, to afforestation, and also to support organisations, Project Green will focus on collaboration, delivering quality projects and ensuring their sustainability,” the government said in a statement. 

Afforestation projects and creating green spaces within our communities are the essential way forward for our country. Malta, is it currently is, just has to much tarmac and paving. When creating public spaces in the community the emphasis must be on green. At times when open spaces are created there is just too much paving and too little green. That should change. 

Some of the projects that have been mentioned as part of this €700 million will likely create havoc on our roads for a while until they are completed. One example, is the planned change to San Gwann’s main road, where an underpass will be created for traffic as part of the existing road in front of the church will be turned into a green open space. Another would be St Anne's Street in Floriana - Prime Minister Robert Abela had spoke about it being turned into a public garden and traffic being redirected underground. 

Yes these will cause traffic problems for a while… but if done well they could be fantastic projects that are needed for our communities. Too long have we just build rows and rows of flats and roads. We need to start thinking differently. We need more open spaces in our community where people can relax, go for a walk, enjoy some greenery… where children can play rather than just look at their screens. 

Parks in our communities also increase the attractiveness of the area. 

The projects need to be well planned, and strict short deadlines must be included. We cannot have one project go on for years causing traffic congestion. Companies winning bids for these projects must have the necessary personnel to work efficiently, quickly, and correctly. Stating the obvious, these must be done through tenders, not direct orders. 

While the idea the government painted is good, one hopes that what is created in practice will live up to expectations. These spaces should have trees, grass, playgrounds, benches, possibly cycle paths if big enough. 

But such moves need to be coupled with others. We should look at creating new planning policies to better protect our ODZ areas. We should consider new policies that would result in less uglification of our urban areas, and that would see more trees in the hearts of our communities planted. Hotchpotch building designs creating ugly streetscapes must come to an end. 

We also need to improve our public transport system to reduce cars on the road. 

There is a lot to do to transform this country.