Triq Daħlet Qorrot

The Ministry of Gozo in a grandiose manner has announced, on a billboard placed at the beginning of Triq Daħlet Qorrot that the latter is going to be rebuilt. I think it would have been better to rebuild Racecourse Street, Nadur. This really needs to be rebuilt.

Triq Daħlet Qorrot needs only to be resurfaced and not rebuilt. Here are some points that I need to make: Was a Planning Authority permit issued for this work and does Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) know about this? On the PA geoserver map, there is nothing indicated and I did not receive any reply after I sent emails to the ERA and the PA. Daħlet Qorrot Valley is a place of natural beauty, heavily farmed in some places but having untouched natural habitats in other places like the cliffs on the left, old grand rubble walls, outcrops of rocks with wild indigenous plants near the roadside and old carob trees. So I think a PA permit is needed and an impact assessment on the natural environment should have been done with ERA supervising the work.

Rebuilding the road again brings to mind… widening the road, large structural works and the taking of precious agricultural land. Does rebuilding the road mean building the bridge again with dire consequences to San Filep Bay?

Building rubble walls may mean removing some old rubble walls which are of more value than new ones. They have been there for centuries and their stones have aged with time. It may mean removing the outcrops of rock near the wayside, destroying the wild indigenous plants like thyme and cutting down a big old carob tree. And in some places, building rubble walls on the right hand side of the road as one goes down, means obstructing the view of Daħlet Qorrot Valley and Ta' Toċċ.

It seems that the Nadur Local Council was not even consulted but just informed and I am not aware that the multitude of part-time farmers in the area have been consulted.

Sometimes being too efficient in getting things done or being too eager to garner EU funds for rubble walls does not augur well for the natural environment.

Joe Portelli Nadur