Speaking in Parliament last week, Environment Minister Jose Herrera gave details about action undertaken at Comino in order to restore and reinvigorate its environment.
Over the previous days a huge effort had been made to clean up the island. Years of neglect and the unchecked vandalism especially from day trippers and campers had filled the island with rubbish which, uncollected, gathered and obliterated many of the island's fields.
Many might not know this, but fields, real fields exist in Comino. Or rather, they existed until neglect took over. The depleted population of the island, now reduced to a single family, could not cope with the work. As a result, the quality of the soil, ravaged by the winds, deteriorated and the fields are now practically sterile, since no crops are grown.
The island also suffers from the consequences of the introduction of invasive and non-native species which have further depleted the island's natural resources.
What is now being done is the planting of thousands of native trees. This is a thankless task for the planting might find a real obstacle in wind, seaspray and the like. We hope that vandalism may not add to the problems, but greatly fear it will.
Cut as it is from both mainland Gozo and Malta, Comino is practically isolated for most of the year and is thus difficult to adequately supervise. Fortunately, it would seem, the plans for the future speak of a tunnel between Malta and Gozo and not a bridge. Had there been a bridge, stopping off at Comino, the invasion and consequent destruction of the island would be assured.
The conclusion, however, is that Comino needs adequate supervision which in these days of drones and IT is not all that prohibitive. What is needed is the political will to supervise and enforce order. We see this in summer when the sparse area where people can rest is taken over by deckchairs many times taking over a far larger space than that which they had been allocated.
We only hope that this welcome treeplanting and general clean-up of the island is not a prelude to that other of Malta's blights – development of illegal boathouses and buildings just as there is on the other side of the sea, at Armier.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2jmQG9J
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