One finds such professions and skills as conservators, restorers, energy performance of building assessors, private guards, nutritionists, probation officers, tourist guides, builders, real estate agents, social workers, and youth workers in the official list of regulated professions and competent authorities; it jars to note that geologists are nowhere listed or mentioned.
As a veteran professional myself, having encountered more than one situation where geologists had a pivotal role from a safety and security perspective, I find this shortcoming very unfair and serious, if not also worrying.
Geology as a profession and science has its roots in the late eighteenth century, first in the United Kingdom and then more widely in the developing world.
There has been a remarkable increase in the number of graduate geologists across the European mainland, not least in Malta.
This increase has arisen partly in response to enhanced opportunities within such activities as rock excavations, water, energy, and civil engineering, based largely on the demand for urban landscapes and infrastructure planning. A wide recognition of the essential role that earth scientists play in environmental monitoring, protection, and conservation, leading to a greater public awareness of geology, has also occurred, especially during the past two decades.
Many activities, including the protection of water resources and waste disposal, require geological advice and may have an impact on the environment. Tunnel digging, quarrying, and construction development all cause environmental changes.
Geologists often work with other professionals such as civil and water engineers, chemists, physicists, metallurgists, planners, and earthquake-proof building designers, many of whom have had professional institutions for years. These bodies have set standards by which a member's capability, ethics, academic training, and experience may be judged and the public's welfare protected. The standards are statutory and subject to government legislation.
So one is legitimately entitled to question the Maltese government's stubborn inaction and refusal to grant professional status recognition to geologists while regulating the profession with a strong legislative framework basis.
Lately, there has been an increasing public awareness of the need for professional regulation to strengthen the geological sciences as a profession and to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Indeed, the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry report flagged the indispensable role of the geologist in the construction industry. It recommended that every rock excavation be preceded by a report by a geologist who is asked to assess ground conditions.
This can only come about with the formal, official, and legislative recognition of the profession of the geologist so that only warranted geologists will be allowed to make such reports and fill in the description of ground conditions in the Method Statement, which presently is done by other professionals who may not understand or misinterpret the site geology.
Yet, regrettably and condemnably, the respective local authorities, for some unknown and nonsensical reason, keep on procrastinating on this issue. It is useless and ironic for them to keep on boasting of having finally radically reformed and regulated what for years has been a cowboy-style and wild-west type of building and construction industry in Malta, while heavily underscoring such a fundamental stakeholder as geologists.
It's about time the geological profession is regulated by law. The rationale is that it gives greater protection to the public. It offers the designated profession all exclusive rights to a title such as 'geologist,' a broad definition of practice, and usually all exclusive rights to practise in a defined geographical area. The public is therefore deemed to be protected from unskilled practitioners by restricting practice to designated professionals.
For established professions, such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, and architects, professional regulation is taken for granted; for emerging professions, however, with geologists being a good example, becoming a regulated profession is often an important objective. Being recognised by the state as a regulated profession is seen by many as the demarcation line between being just another self-declared profession and a 'real' profession.
The most common definition of 'regulated profession' is that the profession has a governing or regulatory body that is sanctioned by law to govern or regulate a profession.
The Maltese government must stop continuing to consider geology as simply a science. Today, it is both a science and a profession.
In modern times, a geologist is engaged in the learnt profession of geology and has an assured competence in it. Our geologists are trained to develop an attitude that brings about a dedication of time and effort to acquire knowledge and apply it for the benefit of all concerned.
It is ironic that while the respective authorities today speak of higher safety standards in the building and construction sector, they blatantly leave geologists by the wayside and out of The Competent Person Register that endorses individuals who possess the necessary qualifications and experience to advise and implement building and construction safety measures.
Construction and building sites are inherently high-risk environments, demanding stringent safety protocols to prevent accidents and injuries, and this is an area where geologists have a lot to contribute.
We might be on the brink of a new dawn for the building and construction industry, but unless geologists are rightly and duly given the recognition of a professional status regulated by a long-expected legislative framework and eventually admitted to being one of the stakeholders who advise the Building and Construction Authority through the Building and Construction Consultative Council, this central economic sector will have started on a wrong footing.
May the respective authorities see sense and act before some other preventable construction tragedy hits the headlines once more.