We have heard the mantra over and over again: the construction industry is essential for the success of our economy. It guarantees decent wages for thousands of workers and a return on capital for hundreds of small and middle-sized businesses.
It provides opportunities for architects, engineers, skilled and unskilled workers, interior designers, estate agents, notaries and lawyers. It is an immense machine.
Given all these benefits, one asks, who would want to rain on this parade or pray for inclement weather if we are all intent on making hay while the sun shines?
But some spoilers are in order. Firstly, the construction industry should be at the service of the sustain-able development of our islands. By ‘sustainable’, that new buzz word, we understand a self imposed, deliberate limit to the idea that anything goes.
By development, we understand the promotion of the common good of society, which should not be measured exclusively by our credit ratings or the GDP or the money we make.
Secondly, the construction industry should be at the service of our quality of life. The uglification of our islands will never contribute to enhance the sense of pride we naturally feel when we describe and showcase the beauty of our islands to our friends from abroad.
This is where the Planning Authority has to exercise a more specific and in-cisive role. Planning should also be concerned with the preservation and promotion of beauty.
Authority should stop being a hollow word. Institutions should enjoy competence, resources and autonomy.
Their legal role is empty if it does not bring an ethical content to deliberations and enforcement.
Areas that are earmarked for further development should cater for open spaces, for gardens and water fountains, works of art and services that create a sense of community.
All these elements to our urban landscape are not dispensable extras better left to describe our many roundabouts. They should become a constant factor in any new development project.
Thirdly, the construction industry should be at the service of our basic right to have a place we call home.
The industry may be building more houses but the unfortunate and probably unintended effect is that we are left with fewer homes.
Market prices are out of the reach of our young generations who want to buy or rent a place where to set home. The frenzy for a quick return on in-vestment would never allow for a de-liberate decision to calm the price hikes in order for housing to be afford-able. The government must intervene on this cycle if it wants the Maltese and other people who live here to enjoy the ability to fulfill their dream to live in a place they call home.
The untimely death of Miriam Pace comes as a very sad reminder of the high price we will pay if the only motive behind the construction industry is money.
People deserve much more than a quick buck in the pockets of a few. They deserve to be able to call and name houses as their homes and they deserve to enjoy their homes in safety.
In the recent Ħamrun tragedy, a garden was turned into a souless pit filled with rubble that was once a modest home of a kindly woman and her family.
Miriam’s body crushed under that rubble should be a sobering enough call for society to wake up and react.