Malta’s soil resources were severely depleted over the past decades as a massive construction boom spread across the island, a new EU report published in Brussels shows.
However, the damage has been considerably reduced in recent years as fewer buildings are now being built on virgin or usable soil resources.
The report on so-called “soil sealing” (loss of soil to development) in the EU shows that, by 2006 (the latest available data), member states lost 2.3 per cent of their soil compared to 13 per cent in Malta.
The highest sealing rates were observed in Malta with 13 per cent, the Netherlands with eight per cent, Belgium with 7.4 per cent, Germany and Luxembourg each with about five per cent and Cyprus and Denmark, each with 3.6 per cent. On the other hand, the lowest rates were registered in Estonia, Finland and Sweden (under one per cent in every case).
Soil sealing is technically defined as soil covered over with an impermeable material such as asphalt or concrete for the building of dwellings or new roads. According to the European Commission, this method threatens the availability of fertile soils and groundwater reservoirs.
Describing Malta as “under extreme pressure” for land use, the report says that, despite its high sealed territory, Malta made significant improvements over the past years as it restricted the use of good soil surfaces for further development.
“The island can be considered as one urban agglomeration as the average population density corresponds to the one of a medium-sized city. Population growth is also among the highest in Europe,” the report states.
“Between 2000 and 2006, land use intensity has been considerably improved. In this period, population growth was still high with 6.5 per cent whereas growth of artificial surface was almost insignificant at 0.1 per cent,” it noted.
European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said Europe could not afford to lose its soil. “We rely on soils for some fundamental ecosystem services and without them life on our planet would grind to a halt. We cannot afford to continue paving them over. This does not mean halting economic development or the upgrading of our infrastructures but it does require a more sustainable approach,” he said.
The EU report indicates that, every year in Europe, an area of soil larger than the city of Berlin, or three times the size of Malta, is lost to urban sprawl and transport infrastructure.
Between 1990 and 2000, at least 275 hectares of soil were lost per day in the EU, amounting to 1,000 square kilometres annually. Half of this soil is permanently sealed by impermeable layers of buildings, roads and parking lots. According to the report, this trend was reduced to 252 hectare per day in recent years but the rate of land consumption is still worrying.
The Commission is proposing a three-tiered approach to address the issue. These include limiting the progression of soil sealing with improved spatial planning or by reassessing “negative” subsidies that indirectly encourage soil sealing, the introduction of mitigation actions to reduce damage when soil sealing cannot be avoided and compensation measures to partially offset soil losses in one area by measures taken somewhere else.
The Commission said it was planning to issue new guidelines on soil sealing in 2012.