10 January 2008 Rating 18% No Comment  

I would like to draw attention to the fact that part of the public coastal area near Otters Waterpolo Club in Marsalforn has been taken away from the public through a parliamentary deed in 2005. Now a pending application awaiting MEPA's approval to "construct a sea water pool, for waterpolo and swimming purposes, pool to occupy part of existing Otters Club House and adjacent land, and replanning of part of existing ramp next to St Mary's Street, Marsalforn" is being processed. While I would like to point out the fact that Alternattiva Demokratika has long been insisting that the government should invest in aquatic sports in Gozo, I question the need for this limited proposal. Why should the Otters Club have to undergo such hassle to get a semi-decent pool? Why should historic salt pans be threatened and why should the public give up yet another piece of coastline? All this for only a few months of use just in case of possibly jellyfish-infested waters. Was a national swimming pool in Gozo not part of the Nationalist Party's manifesto in 1991? We are still waiting 17 years later and the Labour Party ignores such a proposal even in their current plan for Gozo. Green members of Parliament will urge cross party co-operation to safeguard the interests of all Gozitans and Gozo's specific needs. We will get the government to invest in sports in Gozo rather than speculating further public land. Two national swimming pools already exist in Malta; hence we believe that Gozitans deserve, by right, a national pool in Gozo. In its electoral manifesto for Gozo, Alternattiva Demokratika is proposing that a national heated pool to be used all year round and aquatic sports facility would form part of the existing sports complex in Victoria where adjacent land is available or in other locations such as the abandoned Hondoq ir-Rummien distillation plant which could be rehabilitated and transformed into an indoor solar power heated pool for all citizens. EU funds could be tapped to subsidise a public aquatic sports facility for Gozo. Given the socio-educational advantages of aquatic sports in Gozo, I sincerely hope that in the-not-so-distant future the sport finds itself on the national agenda and not used as a favourite subject for lip-servicing exercises that seem to have become somewhat of a national pastime. Stop taking away further public land and give Gozitans what is theirs by right. We are fed up of empty promises. Swim with AD and leave the old political system to sink.