In November, we held another community assembly as part of the Save Our Shores (SOS) Project. It follows community assemblies we held in various other locations around the Maltese Islands, such as: Manoel Island, Valletta and Floriana, Gozo, and Marsascala. The aim of these assemblies is to bring residents together to discuss issues of common concern – especially in relation to the sea.

In a busy port area with cruise ships, shipyards, and boats of various sizes, residents had much to talk about. Residents spoke about black soot from the Palumbo shipyard, a high prevalence of asthma cases in the area, murky air and bad smells, noise and pollution from weddings and boats, toxic smells, chemical pollution from the Rinella tank cleaning facility, and the lack of air pollution monitoring.  On air pollution, residents noted that while an air quality monitoring station was set up for some time, it was located in a place where the readings where not representative of the levels of pollution in the Cottonera area.

Like previous community assemblies, the event was an opportunity for residents to come together to discuss these various issues while providing a model of democratic participation where residents can be empowered to contribute to decisions that directly affect them.

As part of this project, we will soon be publishing a series of articles the impacts of wealthy marine activities on coastal communities as well as holding an exhibition partly based on some of the outcomes of the community assemblies. Keep an eye out for our next events!

The SOS Project is supported by the Minor Foundation for Major Challenges.