Countryside and coastline: The need for environmental wardens

It was very positive last week to see the chairman of the newly established Ambjent Malta taking a personal interest in the report, published by this media house, about persistent illegal dumping in a picturesque Zebbug valley and following up with a much-needed clean-up.

The Malta Independent has been writing about the abuse at Wied Qirda for many months and the swift action taken this time round was a very welcome change.

Conrad Borg Manché, who is perhaps best known for being at the forefront of the fight for public access at Manoel Island (he is also the mayor of Gzira), phoned up one of our editors upon reading our report, and asked us to point him in the right direction. A couple of days later, the area had been given a thorough clean-up and measures had been taken to avoid repeat littering and dumping.

A number of politicians and two NGOs also lent a hand, showing how government and private citizens can come together to the environment’s rescue.

But what happened last week also highlighted everything that is lacking when it comes to environmental monitoring and enforcement in Malta.

Whilst it is positive that the authorities seem to be acting on media reports or complaints by the public on social media, we believe that the state should have its own people inspecting our valleys, our beaches and our green areas, taking stock of the situation and reporting any problems that need tackling.

Perhaps the Environment Ministry could employ – or even possibly reassign – a number of people and designate them as Environmental Wardens, tasked with physically visiting our ecologically important sites to ensure that everything is in order and to highlight any action that needs to be taken.

Illegal dumping should not go ignored for months – or possibly years – until someone flags it in some Facebook post, or on a newspaper front page. The same goes for the detested sea-slime that appears along the coastline every summer.

Ideally, these environmental wardens should also be given enforcement duties. We had been informed that local wardens were to be given a more educational role, and that one of their duties would be to safeguard the environment. But local wardens are unlikely to go down deep into valleys or on to beaches: they are more likely to focus more on the urban environment. And this is why specialised environmental wardens are needed

The work of these environmental wardens would not only be concerned with littering and dumping. They could, for example, monitor the notorious illegal boathouse sites at Armier, Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq and Ġnejna, among other places, and make sure that no new ones suddenly sprout up. This is the least that can be done in a country where the government is held to ransom by people illegally occupying public land.

For this to work, there must be a concentrated effort and a holistic strategy to ensure that everyone is pulling together. We say this because, despite the good work being done by certain NGOs and government entities, other official bodies are, at the same time, setting a bad example.

One such case was the recent Summer Carnival in Marsascala, where plastic confetti was shot into the sea. The message conveyed afterwards was that this was really ok, because most of the plastic bits were cleaned up anyway. The use of plastic confetti is also widespread at village festas.

It makes no sense for one state entity to step up enforcement and monitoring if, at the same time, councils and Ministries are allowing destructive practices to take place across the country. This really defeats the purpose.

There is clearly the need for a holistic waste and littering strategy, which brings government entities, the church, NGOs and the public together, and which bans these antiquated practices once and for all.

On a parting note, 15 September is World Cleanup Day and we urge those of our readers who happen to have some free time on the day to join this noble initiative.