The green whistle-blower

Abstract

With all the well-intended resolutions and auspices which accompany the start of every year we never seem to be able to iron out all our environmental flaws. If anything, the end of December and the start of January witnessed more blatant cases of environmental degradation. The San Martin Valley is well known for its quaint wayside grotto sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady and St Bernadette. With its lush vegetation and majestic Aleppo pines, it has always been highly coveted by those seeking to acquire or illegally develop a property in this desirable locality. Large chunks of the site are owned by a single landowner who had bought it at a ludicrously low price and who, at one time, sought to develop a golf course complete with all tourist amenities. The same landowner was even blessed by the sanctioning of his swimming pool, built illegally a mere 100 metres away from the watercourse and cleverly curtained off by the surrounding vegetation. The latest chapter in the San Martin desecration involves the illegal building of a bungalow using stones from a demolished rubble wall and during whose construction Aleppo pines were ruthlessly cut down. Such a bungalow does not appear on any satellite images or any survey sheets - not even an enforcement notice had been issued in its regard at the time of writing. The perpetrators obviously are oblivious to the ecological importance of the watercourse upon which their properties abut.