Golf: Asking the right questions
Martin Scicluna
Your editorial A Controversy Resurfaces (August
7) on the proposed golf course at Ghajn Tuffieha attempted to be
scrupulously fair. The salient point it made was: "It would be wrong
not to study carefully all the points at issue." As Sir Humphrey
Appleby was wont to say: "It is not so much the answers that matter as
asking the right questions."
What are the right questions? Based on Mepa's own
guidance, these appear to be key. What are the positive aspects related
to golf development in the Maltese islands, and how do they weigh in
the scales against the possible major adverse impacts?
In summary, the positive benefits are said to be
that the development of golf courses will attract tourists seeking to
play in Malta during the winter and "shoulder" months, thus extending
our tourist season. (It has been estimated that, allegedly, perhaps
30,000 will avail themselves of this).
A well-designed golf course, together with
effective marketing, can attract a higher-spending tourist, thus
increasing the economic contribution of tourism and enhancing the image
of Malta as a tourism destination.
A golf course will assist the "product
diversification", by offering tourists an added facility that they can
use, as well as generating some additional employment in the tourism
industry.
What are the disadvantages? The major adverse
impacts can be summarised thus. Golf course development requires a
substantial amount of land - the equivalent of a major Maltese town -
creating pressures in a country where open land is already critically
at a premium.
Golf courses use a substantial volume of water
for irrigation purposes (depending upon the design of the course this
may be over 100,000 cubic metres annually). Other recreational
activities (for example, rambling, picnicking and walking) may be
displaced or adversely affected as a result of the extent of land
required.
The land engineering work required in golf course
development can disrupt the natural eco-system of the area, as well as
the overall scenic value of the landscape. (In parenthesis it should be
added that it is "not only garigue which is the main opponent of the
golf course idea", there are other reasons). The use of the pesticides
and fertilisers to maintain the golf greens poses a threat to
groundwater resources as a result of leaching of nitrates and other
leachates into the groundwater table.
Other specific questions arise:
Will the proposed development have an adverse
environmental impact as a result of loss of good quality land, the
construction of the necessary infrastructure and of adjacent support
facilities, such as club-house, villas etc?
Will it adversely affect areas of conservation
value which may be of ecological importance (such as garigue), or of
scientific, cultural, archaeological or scenic value?
Will the disposal of water and the use of any
pesticides or fertilisers contaminate or pollute natural water systems?
Will the aquifer protection zones be adversely
affected?
Will the scenic impact and loss of tranquil
countryside be acceptable in a country where this is such a precious
resource?
Will the golf course break an undisturbed
skyline, obstruct a panoramic view, or visually dominate or disrupt its
surroundings because of its mass or location?
Having weighed all these factors, we can go on to
ask, as The Times proposes, where does the balance of advantage lie?
It is essential for the sake of generations to
come (this is what is meant by "the national interest") that the
decision reached is based on a reasoned, open-minded, objective
analysis of the key questions raised above - not some visceral,
unilateral assessment of what is best for us regardless of proper,
honest, informed answers to these questions. "My mind's made up. Don't
confuse me with the facts" is no way of making public policy on such a
sensitive issue.
Mr Scicluna is vice-president of Din l-Art Helwa
• Up • Elephants • The Myth • Garigue in Malta • Not Viable • Golf Logic • The Debate • Med Flora • Sacrifice • Who Pays? • Broken Promises • Building Starts • Suspicious • Wide Angle Alternatives • Good for the syndicate • Constitutional right to enjoyment of environment • Talking Point • Asking the right questions • Golfcourse Blues • A sign of things to come • Protect our open spaces •
