The Rape of Nadur and of Our Valleys

11/1/2018 The rape of Nadur and of our valleys

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Sunday, October 5, 2003, 00:00 by Alan Deidun Banking The rape of Nadur and of our valleys AML Officer ( Banking ) Regulatory and Financial Reporting... « Compliance Officer ( Banking ) » Customer Service Officer ( Banking ) Operational Risk Officer Manager - Consumer Banking (Gozo)

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Nadur forgery or "Hercules` forgery", as it is known and other highlights, such as the recently-discovered Sep 27th, 11:14 Roman olive press, should be included in a walking trail along Nadur`s urban core - a sustainable way to The Jew of Malta to be make money out of our architectural and cultural heritage staged at Teatru Manoel next week

Anyone with a love for the typical Maltese and Gozitan environment is seething at the current assault on heritage houses all over the islands. An event unlike any other coming to Malta Mcast Masters graduates are blockchain re… The Gozitan villages of Nadur and Xaghra, the entire Cottonera area, Sliema, Valletta, St Paul's Exceptional learning Bay, Mgarr and Mellieha in Malta have borne the brunt so far. Like The Beatles in concert Although I have deep respect for the inhabitants of Gozo, the current rate at which Nadur and Xaghra heritage houses are being raped is a great slur to their reputation.

It seems that Gozitan property owners have nurtured quite a liking for eyesore blocks of flats and apartments, with which they aim to fill every nook and cranny of their island home.

Unfortunately, the heritage houses, reminiscent of the way previous generations used to live, are a spoke in their wheels. Hence, they seek to obliterate them in every conceivable way - either through licit ways (with MEPA's consent) or else through illicit ways (i.e. by pulling some houses down during some pitch-dark winter night and blaming the event on some storm).

The latter is not simply a figment of my imagination - Nadur is replete with mounds of rubble from former heritage houses whose footprint was erased during a single night.

Such houses were typically built facing south, with the traditional setah (terrace) as one of their hallmarks. An example of this type of construction must surely be Dar ix-Xemx on the road leading to Wied Bingemma and San Blas. Such an architectural and cultural jewel is faithful to the design of heritage farmhouses.

Its groundfloor was used for the rearing of animals and the first floor earmarked for habitation. It owes its appealing name to the fact that it is always under the sun's glare, from dawn to dusk.

This 200-year-old construction lies under the threat of application no. 00024/03 - i.e. "to demolish a building in ruins and to construct instead two dwellings with basement and swimming pool".

I am left aghast by two details within the last statement - the developer's temerity to desecrate such an evocative place by applying for a profane swimming pool in its place and that Dar ix- Xemx is listed here as a 'building in ruins'.

Regarding the latter, may I suggest that the government starts giving financial incentives to anyone owning such a graceful construction to prevent it from languishing in negligence and to alleviate the costs dedicated people need when they seek to save the heritage they possess in such buildings.

Many own such buildings and feel abandoned by Government in their attempts to make their conservation financially feasible.

On the other hand, the authorities, such as MEPA, should be vigilant when it comes to the general welfare of such buildings and hold its owners responsible for any damage, wilful or not, that the same building might incur.

In this way strange occurrences, such as night-time demolition, will cease, one hopes. MEPA simply cannot rest on its laurels by saying that it has already scheduled 1,200 buildings around https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20031005/environment/the-rape-of-nadur-and-of-our-valleys.139697 1/4 11/1/2018 The rape of Nadur and of our valleys our islands. There is so much heritage at stake in the unscheduled buildings. And who is monitoring against any misdemeanours in the scheduled buildings?

Although advertisements for Dar ix-Xemx's resale are plastered all over Gozo, the application to demolish it has been rightly rejected by MEPA.

But the developers have now applied for this decision to be reconsidered! Can such dilly- dallying be halted once and for all?

I would like to congratulate the zeal with which a few concerned Nadur residents, notably Frank Theuma, have embarked on a mission to save Dar ix-Xemx and similar buildings around Nadur.

The Nadur council should embrace the vision of such people with foresight and should also clamour for the safeguard of the soul of Gozo's villages.

The inclusion of the rural urban cores of villages like Nadur should be proposed by local councils as prime candidates for walking routes for tourists who quite often are much more receptive of the hidden beauty of such places.

Is the end of 2003, International Ecotourism Year, marking the end of ecotourism initiatives by our authorities?

The plight of Nadur is reflected in other Maltese towns and villages. In future articles, I will seek to address the pitiful state of the historical heritage of St Paul's Bay and Cospicua and the fate of abandoned illegal buildings.

Flooding - who is really to blame? With the first real deluge of the year, the floodgates of Maltese-style histrionics also opened. Behind the cosmetic scenes of government employees cleaning up areas in front of the cameras, I think our authorities should have serious qualms about their responsibilities, which, predictably, they will keep shirking.

Although accusing fingers started to be pointed as soon as the waters started receding, I believe we need a reality check before we even attempt to point fingers, lest we mistake the wood for the trees.

I agree that the authorities have their fair share of responsibility for failing to clean waterways, or surfacing our roads in a slipshod way. These shortcomings, I believe, are just the tip of the iceberg. Our authorities should regret giving the green light for buildings to go up in our valleys, in the first place.

People now ruing the flood damage in the Birkirkara, Balzan and Lija area should turn their ire towards those currently busy developing their bungalows, further up along the upper reaches of L-Iklin Valley, on the way down to Naxxar.

Bungalows are also being built at a frenetic pace within the valley leading to Ghajn Zejtuna and Kalkara Valley.

Everybody is busy looking for scapegoats and blaming such things as road widths and other such trivia, whilst people, unruffled as ever, proceed with building on valley sides, such as at L- Iklin, without anyone batting an eyelid and raising the issue in the media.

Such undeveloped valleys are invaluable water sinks and channels and MEPA should ensure that they are spared from the grasp of developers. No amount of engineering prowess at Birkirkara or Msida valleys can completely rectify the flooding problem.

This should be a paramount lesson to be learned and all further valley development should be halted. Voices in the wilderness clamouring for such a halt are few and far between.

A case in point is the mayor of Qormi, Roderick Galdes, whom I congratulate for vehemently criticising MEPA for granting building permits close to the valley areas in Qormi.

Just a small rhetorical question now:

Have the smart alecs who decided to park their trailers along a valley in Qormi (which eventually partially blocked the waterflow, exacerbating the flooding) been identified and fined heftily? I said rhetorical since I believe this to be highly unlikely.

A similar heated debate over man's responsibilities takes place after every landslide event in Italy, such as the recent ones in Friuli and some years back in Campania, with environmentalists lamenting over continued construction along the mountain and hillsides.

Incidentally, the two major areas in Gozo which were afflicted with the flooding ordeal were Marsalforn and Xlendi - not surprisingly, these are the two areas where valley-based construction reaches its highest levels.

A good suggestion to the EU, before it forks out the money to Malta to compensate for the structural damage caused by the flooding, would be for the union's bureaucrats to ask our country to give guarantees that measures would be taken immediately to halt valley constructions.

https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20031005/environment/the-rape-of-nadur-and-of-our-valleys.139697 2/4 11/1/2018 The rape of Nadur and of our valleys Otherwise, I expect that Malta would be again applying to the EU for the same, if not for a higher, sum of money next year. Not buckling to pressure from people wanting to build their plush construction in a valley solves the problem, not publicity stunts like sending lanky government employees to do some cleaning up after the floods. We should resort to the deep respect our forebears fostered for the valleys.

Unconvincingly opposed to Car-free Day Business stalwarts around our islands, namely the GRTU, MHRA, Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Industry and Association of Women in Industry, all lambasted our country's participation in Car-free Day on Monday, September 22.

Although each entity gave its own justifications for its stand, the underlying current feeding their opposition was that business would be disrupted and that our public transport is not up to it.

I could agree to a certain extent on the latter point, but then I wonder what utopian public service transport these people expect to coax them into renouncing to use their car.

Twenty-nine other countries adopted the initiative, and I only hope that our country's laudable participation next year is not jeopardised by such biased opposition.

Hats off to whoever stated that the Maltese wear cars like they wear shoes, and that it has simply become a question of "you are what you drive". I am a motorist but do not mind leaving my car at home for one car-free day a year.

To make such an initiative even more of a success, however, authorities should start investing in bicycle lanes along our roads, rather than in gargantuan pavements.

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