Governments are expected to plan ahead. That is, after all, part of their job.

But last year we saw a clear example of failure to plan enough. The infamous heatwave that resulted in power cuts around the country, which caused some people not to have power for days, is still fresh in our memories.

A heatwave, which the country experiences practically every year, will eventually come. Has enough been done to ensure there will not be a repeat?

Last year, the heat reached drastically high temperatures. And in that moment, when people most needed fans to work, air conditioners to operate... the country’s energy infrastructure failed. Power cuts were frequent, some experienced them for days.
The heat wasn’t just unbearable... it was dangerous.

The government failed to plan ahead enough. The result was the suffering of many.

At the time, the government said that the temperatures were so high that cables were impacted. After the heatwave, the government said that it would be speeding up its investment in the distribution of power.

Just yesterday, it was announced that Enemalta has laid over 70km of cables for an accelerated distribution network reinforcement plan. This work by Malta’s energy distributor to reinforce the national grid is aimed at improving the quality and resilience of services which it provides to its residential and business customers, an energy ministry statement said.

It was previously said Enemalta had started upgrading the network in 2022, and that investment was sped up as a result of last year. We were also told it was an unprecedented high temperature heatwave, which it was. But Malta did declare a climate emergency in 2019, so the impact of climate change should have been expected.

Since there is only one energy distribution company in the country, it is up to the government to ensure that such situations do not arise.

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, the Nationalist Party’s Shadow Minister for Energy, Ryan Callus, said that last summer’s power cuts were the result of a lack in investment over the past 10 years in the electrical distribution network, coupled with an energy generation issue, and the country’s economic model being based on population increase rather than on high value-added sectors.

It is very clear that the government was caught off guard by that scorching heat. So yes, a lack of investment is definitely to blame as the country was not ready. One hopes that the improvements done so far will be enough to avoid a repeat.

Looking at things in a wider context, government planning has been lacking on a wider scale. The population boom has had many impacts which the government did not cater for quick enough. The ever rising number of vehicles on the road, constant road widening, the construction of apartment blocks with no sense of design, the current race to create green lungs within urbanely dense localities where people are drowning in concrere. This is all a reaction, and a result of lack of planning ahead. 

The government failed to plan ahead for what is needed to cater for the population rise and it is now scrambling to solve issues that resulted. Plans should have been in place ages ago to ensure better public transport that entices more people to use it rather than their cars on a daily basis. But this is not the case. Cars are still king, and the number of vehicle son the road continues to rise.

If roads needed to be widened, then that shouldn’t have been done at the point where traffic is already jammed on the roads, but should have been done earlier. Although had the country had better public transport  which more people were willing to use, perhaps it wouldn’t have been needed.

Building public green spaces and gardens in localities is great, but perhaps it would have been better to ensure that green spaces were provided for long ago. We are also building higher and higher in narrow roads, cutting off sunlight without even trying to make them aesthetically pleasing. Policies need to improve.