A sacrifice we cannot afford to make

Dr George G. Debono, Sliema.

Mr Joe Attard (The Sunday Times, September 11) accused all who oppose the proposed additional golf course(s) in Malta and Gozo of ignoring the "considerable benefits" of golf courses to our tourist business.

There is no dispute that one or more golf courses might be of benefit to Malta's tourism. The heart of the problem is that we do not have the space for them. It is as simple as that.

Had Malta been a large country with extensive tracts of vacant grassy territory like, say, Spain (195,000 square miles) or even Portugal (35,000 square miles), then it would be utterly misguided to argue against the introduction of golf courses. Mr Attard gets it all wrong simply because he seems unable to accept that it is impossible to squeeze an elephant into a corned beef tin.

Apart from threatening our farms, the construction of golf courses on our small islands will inevitably take up large areas of what remains of unspoiled rugged rocky land, which is characteristic of Malta, known as garigue. The very garigue Mr Attard is in favour of destroying for the sake of tourism took many millions of years to become what it is. It has been there since time immemorial and was enjoyed by successive generations so that it has become part of the Maltese psyche.

It is beyond comprehension how Mr Attard is not in the least disturbed by the thought that extensive tracts of our garigue, countryside or farmland will be destroyed forever wherever a golf course is built. Does the profit to be made from tourism override all other considerations?

Malta has a surface area of only 122 square miles. A huge proportion of this is already under bricks, concrete and asphalt. Shabby architectural eyesores built by entrepreneurs and property developers over recent years have degraded much of our land in one way or another. The remainder has largely been allowed to go to ruin by the shameful neglect of successive governments; to this is added the intensive exploitation of our land, the ubiquitous littering and (even worse) dumping of building material by developers.

It is these matters that should receive attention before it is too late rather than applying a medical plaster called "golf" which will destroy yet more untouched countryside and agricultural land.

The whole question is quite simple. Unless the golf course is sited upon already degraded terrain, such as Maghtab, the balance to be struck is this: the benefit of golf courses has to be balanced against the irreversible devastation of large areas of Malta's precious surviving garigue, countryside and agricultural land.

The loss of a large part of what is left of our pristine land to give tourism "a shot in the arm" is unacceptable. This is a sacrifice which Malta cannot afford to make.

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