One year of Project Green: A new hope for open spaces or a greenwashing exercise?

The Labour Party was elected in 2022 on a programme that contained 1,000 proposals but its flagship was the grandiose plan to create green urban spaces.

Artistic impressions of several major projects revealed how main roads in some localities would pass through tunnels to make space for gardens above them.

The San Gwann main road, Floriana’s St Anne Street, the roofing over of the Santa Venera tunnels approach roads and the transformation of the milk factory site in Hamrun into a big garden were some of the projects unveiled at the time. The PL election pledge was to spend €700 million over seven years to make Malta’s urban environment greener.

It was in January 2023 that the Environment Ministry under Miriam Dalli formally set up a new agency called Project Green to take ownership of this electoral pledge.

- Project Green took over valley management works, the Inwadar national park in Marsaskala, and all urban greening projects. Its initial budget was €13 million, doubling to €25 million this year.

Project Green got involved in several projects, however, not all concerned new green spaces. Indeed, most of the jobs the agency has done until now concern extensions to already existing open spaces or revamping of existing gardens with the planting of more trees, garden furniture and more accessible footpaths.

Information tabled in parliament by Dalli in a reply to Nationalist Party MP Darren Carabott, gave an overview of the projects the agency is involved in and the stage they are at.

A third of projects are valley rehabilitation

MaltaToday found that 36.6% of the projects under Project Green’s belt were entirely focused on the rehabilitation of valleys. The information tabled in parliament shows that 22 of the projects listed involve interventions in a number of valleys across Malta.

According to past press releases, the interventions in valleys include the collection of dumped waste, with more than 2,000 tonnes collected.

In fact, according to Project Green’s website, the entity formed part of the environment ministry’s third edition of the Islands Cleanup, which is a yearly cleanup campaign. Project Green is also responsible for revitalising valleys across the country.

The valleys that got the Project Green treatment include, Wied tal-Ħmieri in Burmarrad, Wied Għajn Mula in Mosta, Rabat’s Wied il-Fiddien and Wied Qirda in Ħaż-Żebbuġ.

In total, Project Green spent €3,672,239 on works involving valleys.

Upgrades to existing spaces

From the 60 projects initiated by Project Green, 28% of them involve embellishments, extensions and upgrades of existing spaces. In this analysis they could not be considered “new” open spaces.

For instance, in September of 2023, Project Green announced that it had submitted an application to the Planning Authority to restore the Presidential Gardens in San Anton Palace, which have been open to the public since the 19th Century. According to the information tabled in parliament, €4.7 million have been dedicated to this project.

Another example is San Klement Park in Żabbar, which is listed twice in the list provided by the Environment Ministry. Firstly, San Klement Park was extended by Project Green in February 2023, one of the first projects completed by the agency at a cost of €62,000. A further €218,000 was spent by Project Green last December, after it opened an obstacle racecourse in the park.

Upon completion of San Klement’s extension, the agency stated that, “with this project, around 11,000 residents will have a green open space in less than 10 minutes walking distance from their residence,” even though this park was already available before Project Green’s existence.

Other previously existing projects which have undergone refurbishment or are yet to undergo refurbishment by Project Green include Birżebbuġa’s Ġnien l-Indipendenza, Gudja’s Ġnien iż-Żgħażagħ and Ġnien Kottoner in Bormla.

In total, €14,316,222 was spent on upgrades, extensions and refurbishment of existing spaces.

New open spaces

In total, seven from the 60 projects listed are new open spaces.

One of the most ambitious projects is the Bengħajsa Family Park in Birżebbuġa. Even though regeneration works on the land in Bengħajsa started about two years before Project Green’s birth, the project was completed by the agency.

The area covering 17,000sq.m in Birżebbuġa was originally earmarked for the expansion of the Freeport terminal but government decided to develop it into a green park. The park is a green open space surrounded by 4,000 trees, equipped with picnic benches made of sustainable material, and information boards explaining the characteristics of the trees and shrubs existing in the park. For children, obstacle games have been installed with benches specifically made from sustainable material. Picnic tables are adapted for people using a wheelchair to have a place at the table and fit comfortably.

In Bormla, a car park previously slated for development as part of an expansion of the American University of Malta will be transformed into a public garden with underground parking.

Given that this area was previously utilised as an open market, the architectural design for the garden will incorporate elements reminiscent of the original market. Specifically, an arched cloister will be constructed, serving the dual purpose of preserving some of the historical market features and acting as a barrier between the road and the garden.

Project Green’s costliest project according to the data tabled in parliament is San Ġwann’s Vjal ir-Riħan open space. The project aims to increase present open space threefold to a total of 7,200sq.m, by reconnecting two sides of San Ġwann, currently split by Vjal ir-Riħan, with safer, car-free pedestrian connections, including a sensory garden, aquatic garden, an amphitheatre, and a sustainable playground, to create “a new green lung in the centre of San Gwann.” This project is slated to cost some €30,000,000.

All seven new open spaces are set to cost €50,808,227.

The Hospice Landscape Garden

One entry from the list tabled in parliament that could not be classified in the categories above was the proposed Hospice Landscape Garden. This project will create a large garden near Hospice Malta’s palliative care centre in Santa Venera.

The land that will be used is currently abandoned and was originally slated for development. The investment will cost €1.2 million.

This entry was not included in the category of new open spaces as it is unique in that it will not be open to the public. Instead, the garden will be reserved for Hospice patients, especially those who cannot visit public places due to health risks.

Project Green’s criticism

One year after being established as Labour’s flagship environmental investment meant to match previous investment into infrastructure, Project Green draws ample criticism.

Firstly, critics often point out that the agency is responsible for small pocket gardens and extensions to existing spaces, leaving much to be desired for environmentalists and people who feel suffocated by constant construction. This analysis can prove that such criticism is not entirely false, given that out of 60 projects thus far, only seven of them resulted in new open spaces.

Project Green’s second problem is the fact that despite heavy marketing efforts aimed at creating the perception of rapidly increasing open spaces for families, (which have now come to include paying influencers to post about the agency’s spaces) government is simultaneously allowing public land to be developed.

Shortly after Project Green was established, a plot of public land in the Tal-Qortin area in Mellieħa was put up for sale, despite hosting endemic and indigenous shrubs. The plot is also one of the few unbuilt pieces of land remaining in the area. This contrasts heavily with initiatives to increase green open spaces for the public.

Finally, some would reasonably argue that the open spaces being built are simply not enough to create a balance between the environment and the rampant development that has engulfed the islands in recent years.

Case in point is an entry from the Environment Ministry’s list in Żurrieq named Pjazza Karmelitani. This analysis classified the space as one of the seven new open spaces, as Project Green aims to plant more trees in the area, while pedestrianising a redundant vehicular path.

While the surrounding residents will benefit from this project, it is a miniscule improvement when compared to the monstrous development approved by the Planning Authority only a few metres away in Nigret.

Here, 11,500sq.m of agricultural land risks eradication, prompting several Żurrieq residents to ask their MPs (including Miriam Dalli) to transform the area into a rural conservation area.

Despite being only one year old, Project Green is already facing risks of being labelled as a greenwashing entity.

No matter how hard it tries to convince the public otherwise, it is government’s imperative not to contradict its own flagship environmental initiative.