Malta’s development frenzy needs to be tackled with courageous decisions to address issues such as inadequate regulations, the lack of licensing of contractors, use of low-quality materials and the lack of certification of materials, according to the Church's environment commission. 

In an opinion paper following a construction site collapse which led to the death of 54-year-old Miriam Pace, the commission said this and other near-tragedies should have served as an eye-opener from the outset. 

“How many people, including elderly and sick, have kept silent, suffering one inconvenience after another, simply because the construction practices on adjacent sites do not respect people’s lives and their right for a peaceful rest?

"What makes such situations tragic is that such inconvenient and dangerous practices can affect any common citizen who would be unfortunate enough to have their home adjacent to a building that has been earmarked for demolition,” the commission said. 

Miriam Pace, left, was killed in the building collapse.

It questioned what the government’s expert consultants on construction and development, “who may also excel in legal rhetoric”, were delivering. 

The commission described the 2019 Regulations on Excavation and Construction Practices as a “populist attempt to impress the public that something is being done” because procedures do not assign clear roles and responsibilities, enforcement “and a mediocre populist approach in dealing with issues head-on”.

These regulations, where the presentation took over from substance, required more thought, it said. 

'Scandalous' BRO

“It is outright scandalous that the Building Regulations Office, instead of setting up and maintaining a register of contractors of its own, and ensuring that all contractors are qualified, trained and certified to do the work that they are contracted to do, chose to abdicate from its responsibility and rely on the Malta Developers’ Association to keep such register,” it said. 

It said the country was still far from having an effective long-term strategy to provide livable and safe spaces for communities and that for far too long, the authorities listened only to contractors and “so-called ‘developers’”.

“It seems it has become common practice for the authorities to summarily dismiss submissions on laws, regulations, policies and development applications made by stakeholders that are not allied to the construction lobby. It is high time the government carries out a major overhaul of its public consultation procedures. Each proposed change in any construction, planning and environmental regulations needs to be fully justified in the document that is issued for public consultation,” the commission said. 

Firefighters dig through rubble at the Ħamrun collapse site. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

It stressed the need to address the issues that were eroding our social fabric. These included “the ravenous greed of individuals, who have been wreaking havoc in the urban and natural environments with the blessing of the authorities, through ill-advised policies and regulations that are influenced by consultants who have glaring conflicts of interests”. 

It also denounced the substitution of honest public consultation with slogans claiming to listen to people’s concerns, describing these as “pseudo-consultations because the agenda would have already been set in the least transparent manner”.

The commission said the country needed to address flaws in its political system whereby national political agendas should not be set through back-room deals which are then given legitimacy through general elections.

It said the authorities should set the example through proper enforcement and a message that people cannot do as they please.

“The impression one gets is that the relevant authorities are failing to protect the vulnerable from the powerful.

"The authorities should see that the concerns of a large number of families, communities and the local councils that represent such communities are given priority over the interests of a couple of irresponsible developers.”

The commission said sustainable development was perhaps the most abused term in planning and political discourse since there was no balance. “What we have witnessed is a gross imbalance in favour of unbridled development and trampling on the natural, archaeological, architectural and social fabric of the country.”

It appealed to honest contractors to speak out and make their influence felt and to landowners to reflect on their actions “since it is useless for them to be shocked and scandalised by the building that replaces the one they had sold”.

It also appealed to the authorities to show where their priorities lie and take difficult decisions to deal with issues head-on.

“The memory of Miriam Pace and of all those who have lost their lives or their homes at the hands of the construction industry, deserve nothing less,” it concluded.