Beach nourishment

I refer to the letter by the Director of Information (March 19) which leaves unanswered all the questions I had put in my letter (March 9) to Francis Zammit Dimech, Minister of Tourism, on the proposed importation of sand for the beach nourishment project at St George's Bay. The questions were on the nature and status of the imported sand, whether this sand is waste material left from quarrying and processing operations in other countries, which could also include contaminated substances. An answer to these questions is fundamental for taxpayers to assess whether the outrageously high price of the sand is justified.

The only information given by the Ministry of Tourism is that the imported sand will come from a chemical company in Jordan. The sand will consist of quartz and other unspecified minerals that are heavier than local sand. The decision to import is based on a fallacy being fed to the public that the relatively heavier weight of the sand does not make it susceptible to wind or wave erosion!

Malta does not have sandy beaches of quartz sand. The imported sand will be totally alien to our attractive local sand and the marine organisms accustomed to it. We do not know what will be the negative impact of a sudden influx of quartz sand on sea grass meadows and the life that they support.

Meanwhile, the ministry has overlooked the fact that beach nourishment has been successfully achieved locally and abroad by dredging offshore sand at a fraction of the price of the proposed imported sand. Dredging should not affect posidonia or sea grass meadows because the sand can be won from a number of seabed localities around Malta known to have shifting sand.

In the short-term, the political decision to import sand will cost taxpayers dearly. In the long-term, this decision may constitute the greatest act of seabed pollution, much worse than the beach extension mishap at Mgarr ix-Xini that led to vociferous criticism by environmental groups and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.