When pigs fly in Gozo

Abstract

The phrase 'when pigs fly' is an adynaton - a figure of speech so hyperbolic that it describes an impossibility. I could not choose a better expression to describe the latest white elephant to be proposed - an underwater tunnel linking Gozo and Malta. What is disconcerting is that the political class has immediately latched on to what was essentially a feeler thrown out by a businessman - unless they have reports in hand to justify their boldness -without waiting for the impact assessment process to take its course. What is even more disconcerting is that some politicians completely bypass professionals, such as marine biologists, geologists and marine archaeologists, and pre-empt the Environment Impact Assesment process by making statements such as "the tunnel will not disturb the seabed" simply because it would be dug 50 metres below the seabed. It is very difficult to verify such a statement when one considers all the trenching, blasting, drilling, excavation and pile-driving such a tunnel development would invariably entail. The tunnel excavation will de facto turn sections of the seabed into an underwater construction site, smothering the most sensitive of marine habitats and species to be found in the Gozo Channel.