Sustainable development

Sustainable development is development which can be sustained and not become a white elephant.

So the use of ground water extracted from innumerable boreholes, which was illegal and then sanctioned is not sustainable because the level of ground water is falling fast. It cannot be sustained in the future.

This reasoning should be applied to any development.

For example the Gozo Tunnel is not sustainable first and foremost because of the price tag, the cost of running and maintaining it and will never make a profit; secondly, Gozo will no longer remain an island. It would be much better to liberalise the transport between the islands and invest in Gozo a fraction of the money used for the tunnel.

We cannot apply examples of past development to today. Like the wise guy who said we would not have Valletta today if at that time people were against development. We should follow the good examples of other countries which are conserving, recycling waste, rehabilitating disturbed habitats, making national park, etc much more than we are doing.

It seems that we Maltese are experts when we talk about conserving the environment worldwide but we are really very weak, as we reward illegalities and leave loopholes in legislation when we deal with our local environment. Charity begins at home. Let us not forget that what is developed here in Malta rarely returns to its natural state.

I wonder why the same developers and authorities who are destroying the natural environment use pictures and videos of the natural environment to promote the beauty of Malta and the value of their developments. Let us not forget that our historic buildings will not look so nice without the backdrop of the natural environment. Joe Portelli Nadur