Pierre Cassar's contribution (The Times, Friday November 7) made interesting reading. Cassar says he would not be baffled if the people at the National Pool's diagnostics laboratory would put their foot down and refuse to work because of the appalling conditions.
I go one step further and say 'how about all of us users of the pool complex putting our foot down' ... would it help? The answer is simple though - it will not help and things will not change either... or would they?
Foreign teams coming to our island for training camps envy us for boasting such a 'nice' Olympic-size pool. But none of them can understand how a complex with so much activity can look so dull and be so dirty and disorganised.
How can it be that a cafeteria, which is given out by tender, closes at the busiest time in the afternoon?
At Tal-Qroqq, when it starts getting a bit busier, say around 5 p.m., it's shut. You may purchase, at triple the price, something from the vending machines.
Of course, the cafeteria owners want to make profits, but you have to invest to gain. How can it be that nobody in all these years had the idea to decorate the place with a bit of colour?
There should be decent furniture where youngsters and adults, who train at the pool, squash courts or gym, can have a snack or a drink at a reasonable price after training.
A sports complex is an ideal meeting point for youngsters and adults alike. Install a big screen, show sport events... there is so much that can be done in such a big place.
Presently, everybody rushes in and out as in a train station. It would be great if some of the officials would bother to come down to the pool and inspect it between 4 and 8 p.m.
The gym is packed, the squash courts are all taken up and the pool is teeming with children and youngsters who train day in day out in all weather conditions as parents wait patiently for them in a mostly dark reception.
Nothing needs to be added to all that has already been said about the state of the pool. But, nowadays, you could count the loose and broken tiles, while swimming, as an added entertainment.
The showers? Well, during the GSSE the cubicles were pretty clean and furnished with new shower curtains. That's all gone now.
The shower drains are blocked and filthy. The changing rooms are littered and only when the female maid is available are the ladies' showers cleaned. Is there someone responsible for inspecting hygiene?
The diving pool is not being heated and the temperature in the bigger pool is at times too low, though, so far, the weather has been very kind.
The staff at the complex is friendly and nice, there is no doubt about that. However, one wonders what they get for wages to show such an indifference to the mountain of work which could be done.
Practising any kind of sports here needs more than dedication. It also requires a big portion of indifference to brave the surrounding conditions.
What puzzles me is that everybody is complaining, but everybody still comes and faces the situation. There's nowhere else we can go, so we put up with it.
All this has already been mentioned last summer in various contributions in The Times. Nothing has changed.
On the contrary, things seem to have taken a twist for the worse. But, I ask, are the authorities concerned investigating the situation?