For once, there can be little argument: eco-contribution funds have been put to genuinely good use.

The €1.2 million investment in a new six-person hyperbaric unit at Gozo General Hospital is exactly the kind of project tourists should feel satisfied supporting when they pay their eco-contribution. Too often, such charges risk being perceived as just another levy, detached from any visible public benefit. But this project offers a clear and convincing answer to that criticism. It is a direct reinvestment into a sector that brings thousands of visitors to Malta and Gozo, while at the same time strengthening the country's healthcare infrastructure for residents.

Gozo has long built a strong reputation as a premier diving destination, attracting enthusiasts from across the world to its wrecks, reefs and dramatic underwater landscapes. If Malta and Gozo are serious about marketing diving as a premium tourism niche then safety must form part of the core product.

In that context, the new hyperbaric unit is essential.

The old one-person chamber was no longer enough for an island that welcomes large numbers of recreational, technical and deep divers. A six-person chamber with mixed gas capability and the ability to treat several divers simultaneously is a major leap forward. It provides peace of mind to visiting divers, reassurance to local diving schools and operators, and a vital medical service that can also benefit other patients in Gozo requiring hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

This is an investment that makes sense from every angle: tourism, public health, emergency preparedness and community benefit.

But if the government wants praise for doing the right thing in Gozo, it must also accept criticism for what it continues to neglect in Malta.

Cirkewwa is widely regarded as Malta's flagship dive site - the premium diving site on the island, the place promoted to locals and tourists alike, and one of the busiest entry points for divers. Yet for years, divers have been pleading for something basic: a proper first aid centre or clinic close to the site.

Calls for a first aid centre at the Cirkewwa Marine Park have been ongoing for years. After the tragic death of a diver last year, divers wrote to the Office of the Prime Minister describing the indignity and inadequacy of the response: treatment administered on a pavement, in full public view, in oppressive summer heat, for close to half an hour before an ambulance arrived.

That should have been the moment when action followed. Instead, the issue remains unresolved. Divers have long argued that rooms leased to Gozo Channel close to the dive site could be repurposed, with one becoming a clinic and the other serving the diving community. At present, the only facilities available are bathrooms and showers. For a site of Cirkewwa's stature, that is simply not good enough.

The Gozo hyperbaric investment shows what can be achieved when government recognises a real need and acts decisively. It deserves credit for that. But the lesson must now be applied across the channel.

If eco-contribution money can fund a state-of-the-art hyperbaric chamber in Gozo, then surely government can finally find the will - and the relatively modest resources - to provide a proper first aid centre at Cirkewwa.

Supporting diving tourism means more than selling the experience. It means protecting the people who make it possible, and those who come here to enjoy it.