This week’s Parliamentary debates confirmed how Government is still determined to boost the construction industry, even at the cost of residents’ health and well-being. The separation of the MEPA Planning and Environment Directorates was given importance, but no attempt is being made to give the Environment Authority real power beyond a token vote at the MEPA Board.
Politicians are misleading the public with the hollow chant that “it is better to build upwards than to build in the countryside”, given that the new ODZ proposals will allow far more development in the countryside, while the Kirkop major project and other permits continue to be issued on virgin land.
Government spokesmen continue to ignore the fact that with 40,000 empty properties, a large percentage recently-built, the most urgent requirement is not to create new properties but to use existing ones. Politicians’ claims that Malta needs tall buildings to meet a demand for new office blocks was denied by MEPA as the Metropolis and other mega-projects are expected to provide hundreds of office units.
Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar highlights the fact that the international Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat along with the UNESCO Sustainability Committee has recently issued a comprehensive report pointing out that tall buildings are not as environmentally friendly as they have been thought to be, and have also raised issues of residential overshadowing, social social issues especially for the young and the old, wind and heat canyon effect, and increased air pollution, all urgent matters which MEPA insists on ignoring.