Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1380662
CONFRONTED last week to express their opinion about the tunnel that former Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat wanted so dearly for Gozo, the three La- bour ministers from Gozo recit- ed the same response. They said they were all for a tunnel be- tween Malta and Gozo. None of course is considering how much this would cost the taxpayer and the background to this white el- ephant of projects. Even though private polling of Gozitans and Maltese, data shows an overwhelming ma- jority objection to a tunnel, and yet politicians continue to fight windmills. Beyond the environmental arguments, there is little doubt that such a project would put incredible pressure on the country's coffers – and at a time of such massive deficit due to the COVID-19 aid package, piling on a €1 billion in capital expenditure to connect two is- lands is just simply the wrong kind of priority. And apart from the running costs of maintaining such a ven- ture, no doubt a matter of con- cern for both the private opera- tor and the public guarantor of such a project, the worst part of it is that there is no discernible financial return. That is... you are not connecting Sicily to the island and creating a motorway into Europe for our logistics in- dustry to gain a faster and eas- ier foothold into the continent; you are connecting, at great and irrevocable environmental ex- pense, two small islands. Supporters claim this is what Gozitan commuters to Maltese workplaces would want. But seldom do we stop to take seri- ously the need to provide those who want to work in Gozo, the proper opportunity to work on the sister island. Yet the three ministers from Gozo – Clint Camilleri, Justyne Caruana and Anton Refalo – were rather collegial in spirit, unwilling to unsettle this man- tra about the tunnel being part of the Muscat legacy that can- not be discarded. Surely if there were allega- tions about the transparency of government projects when it came to such big projects, this one would have definitely raised a few eyebrows. Perhaps most of us have forgotten that one of the companies directly involved in the allegations of graft linking the former Muscat administration to Maltese and Chinese businessmen and gov- ernment-owned companies was one Macbridge – an offshore company that stands for Mal- ta & China Bridge. God know what the design was for some incredible disbursement of state funding in this crazy project. It happened to be round about late 2015, coincidentally right about the time Macbridge was being set up in Panama, that Joseph Muscat was telling La- bour supporters of a study from economic Gordon Cordina that the Gozo tunnel 'made financial sense'. Certainly, the whole motiva- tion behind the Gozo tunnel must be revisited. Macbridge, linked to the Accenture con- sultant Chen Cheng and his family, planned to pay up to $2 million to Panama firms con- trolled by Mizzi and Schembri, having been listed as a target client alongside 17 Black, which was revealed to be owned by Yorgen Fenech. 17 Black paid €1 million into another compa- ny owned by Chen – Dow's Me- dia – in 2015, right before the Mossack Fonseca hack. Anyone in his right senses would scrap the Gozo tunnel plans. More so when today we have three ferry services work- ing round the clock. More so when we do not know the real story, the story that would link all these projects to a politi- cal master. No surprises that when the tunnel project was announced, China Communi- cations Construction Co. Ltd, a state-owned Chinese engineer- ing and construction company which in 2013 financed a study to determine the feasibility of a bridge connecting Malta and Gozo, also expressed interest in leading a consortium of en- gineers to take this project. Knowing how so many major projects inside the Muscat ad- ministration always came with a particular 'kicker', perhaps this one requires some close scruti- ny. * * * There is an unspoken threat to Malta's environment, and they are the quarries. Right now there is immense pressure up- on environment minister Aar- on Farrugia to issue permits to quarry owners to allow them to extend their footprint. The gov- ernment has resisted, until now. To show their firepower the Malta Developer's Association have ordered quarry owners not to accept any dumping of material waste in their quarries, and that includes waste from contractors and home-owners. By closing down the quarries to take in inert waste, or by rais- ing the price for such dumping, quarry owners can force pro- jects to a halt; mounds of inert waste gets collected on stalled construction sites to the detri- ment of communities; and un- less the government accepts the terms of the quarry-owners, it is them who call the shots. So there is a raging battle be- hind the scenes, and surpris- ingly not a word has been said, not even a press release from the Planning Authority – unu- sual considering the PA has of recent even issue statements on some rather innocuous cases of no environmental import. If Farrugia buckles and gives in to the bullying of these quarry owners he would have effec- tively sentenced more precious Maltese and Gozitan land to be permanently lost forever. For decades quarry owners have defaced our country. turning it into a pitiful sight. Farrugia must hold ground and if need be use his draconian powers – a modicum of courage at the least – to circumvent the quarry owners and force them to open. 5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 JUNE 2021 OPINION Tunnel vision Saviour Balzan Anyone in his right senses would scrap the Gozo tunnel plans. More so when today we have three ferry services working round the clock