Grit blasting at the docks

Not so long ago when the shipyards was supposedly  “self-managed” by the workers, grit blasting at the dockyards was cited by Nationalists as an example of the socialist enclave’s lack of respect for its neighbours in The Three Cities. And since the area in which the dockyard is located was and still is a Labour fortress, few bothered to protest.

I remember my shock at the time when the workers’ council offered to repair a ship refused by all European countries, including Malta, simply to get some work over here.  For me, as a young lefty, this episode was very revealing.

Now that grit blasting is being conducted on a similar scale by the private company which recently bought the dockyard from the Nationalist government, Palumbo, the locals are no longer complacent. And that is a good thing.  One wonders whether environmental and social considerations were even dealt with in the privatisation process in which the real prize were the superyacht facilities (Palumbo’s bid is the frontrunner in the superyachts sale, which has cost the job of the Privatisation Unit’s chief executive over allegations of attempted bribery).

So did we sell this asset to a serious company or to one engaged in a race towards the bottom? For while it’s good for the economy that our taxes are not splashed on a moribund industry (whose death was accelerated by bad managerial decisions like that of the Fairmount ship fiasco), neither should we allow a race to the bottom when it comes to standards to keep an industry alive.

Fortunately following an uproar in local communities, MEPA has had to intervene by issuing a stop notice. Let’s hope that MEPA will have the balls to stop this activity once and for all irrespective of the consequences for Palumbo.

The fundamental reality is that the dockyard is a relic of a bygone age when Malta was a colony serving the naval might of the British and the Order of St John before them.  Ship-repair in the western world ship now has to compete with countries with lower standards. This has resulted in many dockyards closing down.

If the only way for the dockyard to survive is that of lowering environmental standards it would be better to close it down, rehabilitate the area into a panoramic waterfront and set up a museum commemorating the economic and political legacy of the dockyard. Probably this will have a better trickle-down effect on Cottonera than a polluting industry.