As Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing I would like to call for all stakeholders to reflect on this delicate matter that is constantly on our national agenda, ‘the environment’. I can’t emphasise enough the importance we need to give to this issue.
Social wellbeing is about ensuring that people have an adequate quality of life at all levels and not only when it comes to economic wealth. It is indeed not just financial success that makes us triumph. Our accomplishment is measured by our ability to live together and to avoid that current and future generations struggle with pollution and low air quality, toxic waste, uncontrollable litter and contamination of our seas, to name just a few.
A major concern that is creeping in is that law abiding citizens are being faced with a dilemma brought about by a neoliberal approach of ‘individual’ versus ‘community rights’. If we are takenover by the, ‘everyone is doing it, why shouldn’t I’ forma mentis, it will essentially mean the beginning of the end of the values that have distinguished our society.
Ensuring a legacy based on communities of comfort and happiness, of healthy air and solace should be our prime objective.
My concerns:
- We are witnessing a built-up environment that is leading towards a potentially gigantic problem because the construction industry is eating away at the heart of our social fabric.
- The negative effects of the infamous 2006 rationalisation exercise still haunt us. Relaxing height limitation regulations are leaving an impact on our neighbourhoods.
- We are also ‘endorsing’ a lack of open spaces. Because maximization of profit has become a priority, we are getting rid of back gardens, porches, and the like to make smaller cubicle sized accommodation. The irony is that the fact that we’re going smaller is not reducing the pressures on land uptake because we are right in the middle of a frenzy to build every possible piece of land one reason being the ever increasing population of imported workers to keep our over-heating economy going. Added to this is the trend that open spaces such as the piazza and pedestrianised areas are being taken over by chairs and tables. Once again space has been commodified.
- We are authenticating properties that are being put up for rent in an effort to lure foreign people working in the lucrative and well paid i-gaming sector. This is having a net result as an inflation of rental prices that are driving lower and medium income people to struggle to make ends meet.
- We are experiencing an onslaught on the countryside. Less countryside means fewer areas for water to be absorbed which in turn means water tables are not being replenished. The end result is a water table which is depleted due to unsustainable overpumping.
- High salinity levels have the potential to make water deleterious for human consumption.
- We are noting a new phenomenon, namely that of the removal of mature trees to make room for traffic, another scourge which we have to endure. The chopping down of these trees is robbing people of their collective memories whilst changing landscapes beyond recognition. It also robs people of green which not only provides much needed shade and better air quality. It also affects the connection that citizens need with nature, which is necessary for the soul and mind to engage. Instead we are asked to take on soulless concrete and tarmac. This has a consequence on the psychological wellbeing of our communities.
- We are certifying an increase in traffic. Spaces both for recreation and leisure that used to bring children and young people together are vanishing. The street in yesteryear was a place where children and young people from the neighbourhood could congregate and now these spaces have been severely compromised. For their safety, we are coming up with organised play rather than leaving children and young people to their own creative devices.
- I feel that since the MEPA demerger we are witnessing two new entities (ERA and PA) that are vying for space. It appears to me that the PA (Planning Authority) has the upper hand in decision making whilst ERA (Environment and Resources Authority) simply serves as a consultative body to the same PA. This concerns me. ERA needs to focus on developing policy and implementing strategy. One of the main indicators that successfully indicate that the environment issues are being taken seriously is through enforcement. The State needs to incentivise healthy urban gardens, vertical greenery (gardens) and sustainable buildings, to mention just a few examples.
- Finally, I encourage, politicians, policy makers and the general public to ask:
- Will the concept of sustainability be addressed seriously only after the current building boom subsides?
- Where have the environment NGOs gone? Am I wrong in assuming that they became part of the entire process and lost their mission to critique as they slowly became part of the funding system and partake to management projects with the risk of becoming hostage to the same situation they were set up to watch?
- Do the PA and ERA realise that there is a need to draft ethical approaches to sustainability, growth and wellbeing so that we link the physical-social-thematic matrices of the environment?
- Is the ERA, the main guardian of our environment, or is it powerless in the face of a rolling-‘economic success story’?
- Does Malta risk a collapse in its infrastructure (space, power and water generation) if it chases these high-rises and attempts to indulge in massive tourism markets?
I appeal.
It is the right time to ensure the level headedness of politicians, policy makers, academics and all stakeholders when debating ‘the environment’ and they need to be vigilant on the collateral impact of the decisions that are made and taken. It is the right time for the State to assume responsibility when common sense does not prevail. It is the right time for all the citizens to stand up against the impending obliteration of our communities.
Prof. Andrew Azzopardi
Dean, Faculty for the Social Wellbeing