Mġarr residents and farmers have banded together to stop the destruction of seven football grounds of virgin land to make way for greenhouses and a solar farm in the rural village.

They are calling on the planning authority to put the brakes on a project that will eat into approximately 43,303 square metres of ODZ land, arguing that solar panels should be placed on already-developed areas.

“Solar panels should be placed on other man-made surfaces, such as schools, industrial areas, factories, quarries, where the natural habitats and ecosystems will not be put in jeopardy,” a petition opposing the project read.

Signed by over 300 people on Wednesday, the petition states the project will be an eyesore and “will further degrade Mġarr's traditional village and environment.”

The applicant of the project Joseph Schembri, managing director of Electrofix, declined to comment when contacted by Times of Malta. 

Farmers are also objecting strongly to the take-up of arable land for this project, claiming that greenhouses with solar panels can’t be used to grow food, and are being used as a disguise to get approval to build a solar farm.

“You cannot get permission to build a solar farm on virgin land so in many cases such as these, applicants use the greenhouses as a loophole,” spokesperson for Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi, Malcolm Borg said in a social media post.

“We are ready to challenge any experts that claim produce can be grown in these greenhouses and urge the Agricultural  Advisory Committee of the Planning Authority to conduct research into the feasibility of growing produce under these solar panels before the permit is approved,” Borg wrote.

Environmental studies Professor Alan Deidun echoed residents’ concerns about the worrying the loss of habitat this project would cause, in this case the destruction of the garigue with its endemic and indigenous shrubs, an important food source for pollinators.

“There is a certain mentality that the garigue is wasteland. It isn’t and loss of such a large footprint of garigue is irreverisible. My greatest concern is for the biodiversity in the area that is dependent on that habitat,” he said.

He also backed fears that the take up of flat land by greenhouses would minimize the rainwater percolation into the water table, unless provisions were made by the applicant to harvest this water.