Graffitti-led coalition crowdfund to stop Żabbar-Kalkara road to Smart City
# Graffitti-led coalition launches crowdfund to slam brakes on Żabbar-Kalkara road to Smart City
A feisty alliance of residents, cyclists, artists and heritage NGOs has taken to the internet to crowdfund a David-vs-Goliath legal battle against the proposed Żabbar-Kalkara arterial road that would slice through centuries-old farmland and open a four-lane gateway to Smart City.
The campaign, fronted by activist collective Moviment Graffitti and supported by Bicycle Advocacy Group, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar and the local councils of Żabbar and Kalkara, passed the €20,000 mark in its first 48 hours—proof, organisers say, that Maltese communities are no longer willing to trade lungs for tarmac.
### “We’ve done this before, we’ll do it again”
At the heart of the dispute is a 1.2-kilometre stretch of agricultural rubble walls, carob and prickly-pear land known locally as Wied Għammieq. Transport Malta wants to turn it into a €40 million bypass intended to ferry tech workers between Smart City and the airport. Activists argue the route will obliterate the last green wedge separating the historic Three Cities from over-developed Żabbar, while dumping yet more traffic on Kalkara’s narrow marina streets.
“We’re not against progress; we’re against concrete that nobody asked for,” declared Graffitti spokesperson Andre Callus from a makeshift stage outside the Kalkara parish church on Sunday. Behind him, children chalked hopscotch squares on the piazza stones while elderly men debated the merits of the 1960s Kalkara creek reclamation. “Remember the Marsaskala yacht marina protests? Or Gozo’s diesel power station? The people won then, and we’ll win again.”
### A question of identity
The legal challenge hinges on the government’s failure, activists claim, to carry out a full Environmental Impact Assessment and to consult on the cultural value of the rubble walls—dry-stone structures recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Historians point out that the path of the proposed road skims the 17th-century Għammieq redoubt, one of the Knights’ coastal defence outposts that once warned of Ottoman corsairs.
“Every stone here tells a story,” said Żabbar mayor Maria Sara Vella, who joined the crowdfunding launch despite her council’s Labour majority. “Żabbar is more than fireworks and festa confetti; it’s the smell of rain on soil that has fed families since the Order of St John. Once it’s asphalt, you can’t un-asphalt it.”
### Traffic promises vs traffic reality
Transport Malta insists the road will shave 15 minutes off peak journeys to Smart City’s 7,500 employees. But a 2022 University of Malta study found that induced demand typically erodes such gains within five years. Meanwhile, the same study noted that only 9% of Smart City workers live south of the Grand Harbour—raising the question of whom the road really benefits.
Residents like 71-year-old Carmel “Il-Bukkett” Micallef, who still tends the family vines along Wied Għammieq, are sceptical. “When Smart City was approved in 2007, they promised us a ferry service,” he scoffed, pruning shears dangling from his belt. “All we got was more cars and a cruise-liner terminal nobody uses.”
### Crowdfunding as political theatre
The coalition’s fundraising page, hosted on Maltese platform Zaar, offers quirky perks: €25 buys a hand-printed “Don’t Pave My Valley” sticker, while €500 secures a cycle tour of the threatened valley with historian Dr Joan Abela. At €5,000, donors get their name etched—ironically—on a reclaimed limestone block destined to become part of a new community garden if the campaign succeeds.
“Every euro is a vote against the idea that roads equal development,” said Bicycle Advocacy Group president Michelle Attard Tonna. “We want the money to fund technical experts, court fees and drone footage that will show Malta what’s at stake.”
### What happens next
Should the campaign hit its €100,000 stretch goal, the coalition will file an urgent judicial protest and demand a public inquiry. If it fails, organisers say the funds will still seed a long-term green fund for the southern harbour region.
As the sun dipped behind Fort Ricasoli on Sunday evening, the valley echoed with a spontaneous guitar rendition of “L-Aħħar Bidwi f’Wied il-Għasel”. The lyrics—about the last farmer in Honey Valley—felt prophetic. Whether Wied Għammieq becomes a motorway or Malta’s newest nature park now lies in the hands of ordinary citizens, one crowdfunding click at a time.
