Having consistently featured as one of the top-scoring concerns in public perceptions surveys, the environment predictably attracted more than a cursory look by those contesting next week’s elections.

So much so that terms such as ODZ, public green spaces, renewable energy, electric cars, public transport, new modes of transport, restoration, picnic areas, parks and afforestation have been mainstreamed within the ongoing electoral campaign.

This is all fine and dandy and should be reason enough to rejoice, especially when considering that environmental issues barely made a mention within electoral pledges up till 10-15 years ago. The elation sours into dejection and downright vexation, however, when one scratches beyond the surface of such pledges, proving right once again the adage that the devil lies in the detail.

For instance, this column, along with others, has, since 2013-2014, been decrying the unadulterated abuse ushered in by the revised ODZ policies approved in 2014 and known by the RPDG (rural policy and design guidelines) tongue-twister.

In the past 10 odd years that such policies have been put into practice, for instance, countless and dodgy applications for agricultural stores, stables, residential extensions to existing farmhouses, sheep and poultry farms and a dazzling array of farm-related amenities would suggest that there is a current resurgence of agriculture on these islands.

But, while it is ironic that land abandonment is a widespread occurrence, with farmers becoming increasingly disillusioned with prospects for the sector and throwing in the towel as a result, requests for ODZ developments linked with farming have spiralled, as genuine farmers give way to opportunistic land developers acting under the guise of farmers.

Neither the PL nor the PN have had the elusive chutzpah to call for an overhaul of the RPDG, given that a less permissive Planning Authority would lose them votes. Similarly, as rightly recently decried by Malta’s largest environmental NGOs, the PLPN proposals do not address the elephant in the room – biodiversity and habitat loss – probably because these concepts are still alien to many voters.

Pledges for more landscaped family parks and picnic areas and to subject large-scale ODZ development to a two-thirds parliamentary majority is child’s play, given that it will resound with voters concerned with over-development without ruffling developers’ (large and small) feathers, given that most ODZ development currently being proposed consists of small-scale projects submitted by individuals.

The further protection of Malta’s Natura 2000 network, which includes all the ecologically-important terrestrial and marine sites, barely features within the two main electoral programmes, probably since formulating such a programme is an exercise in populism.

When it comes to the environment, the PL and the PN exhibit a masterful sleight of hand… promising to prioritise the environment without biting the bullet and tackling the real issues so as not to alienate the considerable number of voters making a buck out of construction.

Portelli’s flats for Gozo

Getting blocks of flats approved on his home island of Gozo seems to have become Joe Portelli’s raison d’etre, with one faceless monolith after the other sprouting like mushrooms all over the sister island. The cheek and rub in it all is that the same units are generally being advertised by Portelli’s associates prior to them being approved by the relevant planning authorities.

The PLPN proposals do not address the elephant in the room – biodiversity and habitat loss- Alan Deidun

In fact, as rightly reported by journalist Victor Paul Borg, the 73 units within the recently approved apartment block at Sannat were almost sold just hours after the decision to approve the same block, suggesting a prior advertising campaign.

The same journalist has documented how units within a 54-flat block planned for the outskirts of Victoria (Wied Ta’ Żejta), abutting a watercourse at the edge of the development zone, were already being advertised online before the Planning Authority actually affixed the development notice on site, let alone having yet decided on the same application.

Are we to deduce that hearings at the PA on such applications by Portelli and associates are just formalities and the outcome is a foregone conclusion, given that the stakes (sealed promise of sale agreements, for instance) are such that the authorities cannot afford to balk? Are we to deduce that the pre-approval sale is a clever ruse to actually guarantee the same approval of the same units, a not-so-subtle arm-twisting of the relevant authorities?

Is such a pre-approval sale ethical or even legal? Portelli’s legacy for the island he once called home is an unsavoury one indeed, consisting of dust, concrete and even more clutter and traffic.

20 years have flown by

This column is 20 years long in the tooth today, having been featured by then editor Laurence Grech way back in March 2002. It was a shot in the dark back then for The Sunday Times of Malta editor to allocate space to a rookie like a fresh graduate in his early 20s as the undersigned, to boot signing off his columns under the uninspiring moniker of ‘the green whistleblower’, especially when environmental journalism was still thin on the ground back then.

The column’s questionable branding might have been overhauled since then but, 500 columns and 500,000 words and six environmental journalism awards later, with countless planning applications covered and a myriad of environmental issues featured, this fortnightly column still manages to draw a readership.

The seeds sown through the inception of this column are bearing fruit, with the entrenchment of the ‘whistleblower’ status within national legislation and environmental issues dominating in recent years the printed, online and audiovisual media.

A word of gratitude to the past and present editors of The Sunday Times of Malta for their forbearance over the years (especially in the face of my chronic disrespect for deadlines) and to readers of this same column for making this voluntary effort all the more worthwhile and for the tangible legacy being left behind.