Land reclamation in Malta - Mikela Borg

Life on the Maltese islands has become more hectic than ever, with a construction boom snowballing to unprecedented proportions. Catering for the ever-increasing population, construction work is all around, with developments and infrastructural works popping up far and wide.

To give but one example among the many, the Malta-Gozo tunnel will start being constructed soon. This project on its own is expected to generate one million tonnes of waste.

Our small island is running out of terrestrial space, leaving developers eyeing the Maltese territorial waters next for development. Land reclamation is the process in which new land is created from the ocean, by filling the sea bed with rock and cement.

The concept is not new for Malta; we have past experiences with similar work being carried out for the construction of the Malta Freeport in Birżebbuġa as well as the ferry terminal in Ċirkewwa.

Back then, the Professional Diving Schools Association (PDSA) had lamented on the environmental implications and threats faced by the local diving industry.

It does not require a lot of imagination to picture the alarming and irreversible environmental impacts land reclamation has on the sea and...