Roman Catholic Church’s Environment Commission tells Joseph where to get off

The Roman Catholic Church’s environment commission appears to have been prodded awake by the new Archbishop. It has sunk its teeth into the government, saying that it is surprised to find that while the government calls for tender offers for small bits of public land or buildings, it didn’t bother doing so with 90 tumoli of land at Zonqor Point.

And not just the land, either. The RC Church’s environment commission is one of just two to point out – the other is Therese Comodini Cachia, shadow minister of education -hat if the government really wanted a new university, then it should have issued an international call for expressions of interest.

But even that should have been the last stage of long process of consultation with all stakeholders, and the drawing up of a strategy for the holistic development of tertiary education, none of which happened, the commission said.

“Simplistic comments like ‘another university will create competition for the University of Malta’
betray a lack of understanding of how the proposed project will affect national tertiary education in general. A studied strategy is crucial because if it concludes that certain issues can’t be resolved to the common good, then it’s back to the drawing-board,” the commission said.

The commission said that the first step in choosing the location should have been the designation of land for the purpose in a development zone “irrespective of whether it is public land or not…with fiscal incentives to encourage owners to part with it and put vacant buildings to good use.”

Once a development-zone site had been identified, the RC Church commission continued, there should then have been an international call for expressions of interest, with all planning parameters. “That way, the project would have been accepted by all,” it said. “But unfortunately, the whole process has been opaque, very insensitive to the environment, and its lasting impacts are not clear.”

The RC Church commission said it is “baffled” by the government’s statements that Zonqor Ploint is the most suitable site for this project, and “more baffled still” by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s statements that it had identified the site as the best “after a preliminary assessment”.

“Is the MEPA oblivious to its own local plan policies and regulatory obligations?” the RC Church commission said. “The choice of site disregards the value of the countryside, and using terminology like ‘abandoned farmland’ shows how “dismally low” certain people’s view of the countryside is.

“Not so long ago, every part of Malta could be built on, depending on the whims of the works minister,” the commission continued. “And we can all witness the result of that today. That dark period in the history of Malta’s land-use must not be repeated.”

The commission said it cannot understand the plans for a nature park, either. “The countryside is already there and the best that can be done for the time being, before ecologically restoring some of its areas, is just to leave it alone. As a comparison, when Yellowstone National Park in the USA was declared as a park in the nineteenth century, there was no need to build alongside it an area the size of New York City in order to provide funding for the park.”

The commission has also flexed its RC muscles and written to DePaul University with a stern request to
“impress on the developer the imperative need of finding another place to build the university, so as not to have a negative impact on the Maltese countryside, a natural resources which is highly prized in one of the most densely populated countries in the world.”

DePaul University replied and said that it has “a strong commitment to sustainability in Chicago” and that it will communicate the Commission’s concerns to the investors. But the Commission said that it has done so itself already.

“Surprise announcements of large projects like this one, instead of impressing positively, have a greater chance, as has in fact happened, to shock negatively,” the Commission said.