A land reclamation project that will see a large swathe of the Gżira promenade turned into a private lido came under fire on Monday as excavation waste seeped into the Gżira creek and flowed out into the Sliema waterfront, tinting the bay’s waters a milky white.
Citizen action group Inħobbu l-Gżira took to Facebook with multiple videos and pictures showing the ongoing construction work as the water’s hue gradually changed colour from silt and other construction material polluting it.
“With sadness we show you the greatest act of vandalism on the Gżira seafront and Sliema Creek for the benefit of the Bayview Hotel, the Kennedy Nova Hotel and the Waterfront Hotel. The video shows the extent of the sea and the relative sea front being lost to the public,” the group said.
“May this single act of vandalism remain heavy on the conscience of those who are building it, those who approved the permit and those on the Gżira Local Council of the time whose duty it was to oppose but did nothing.”
Permits for the land reclamation as well as the lido and restaurant were issued in 2016 to a consortium of four hotels, the Bay View Hotel, the Kennedy Nova Hotel, The Strand Hotel, and the Waterfront Hotel. The concession will be valid for 65 years.
The consortium had argued for the concession to compensate for the lack of swimming pool facilities in their own hotels. The project would also serve to improve the area’s touristic value, they had said at the time.
The project sparked public anger in the beginning of November, when large concrete hoarding went up around the site, obstructing pavement access as well as street level views of Manoel Island from the Gżira promenade.
“We can say bye to the public promenade and welcome to the private lido that will give pedestrians merely two metres of passageway,” Gżira councillor Jeremy Cardona wrote in a Facebook post.
“What happened in the past is in the past now and what the council did not do that time I can’t fix now, but what I can say is that this is vandalism,” he said.
“Gżira deserves much better.”
Partit Demokratiku as well as activist Michael Briguglio also decried the project.
In a joint statement, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA), Tuna Artna Lura, NatureTrust Malta and Inhobbu l-Gzira all expressed outrage.
They said that the development in question was located on the site of 36 colonies of protected Mediterranean coral Cladocora Caespitosa.
"This extremely rare, protected species of coral is included in the Red List of endangered species threatened with extinction by the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the global authority on the protection of the natural world," they said.
Yet again, the interests of businesses, namely the Bayview Hotel, the Kennedy Nova Hotel and the Waterfront Hotel, have been put before the interests of residents, the NGOs said.