Since there are so many people living here (and continuing to move here), the people here have to be more conscious of their environment. There is always a lot of construction and a lot of traffic because of the increasing population. Since there are so many people, there is also a lot of garbage and a lack of "clean" water. Many people do not drink the tap water here because it is desalinated ocean water and they do not like the taste, so the amount of plastic water bottles being thrown away is very excessive.
Many people have started taking the initiative to organize environmental protests and beach clean-ups to combat the littering, reef destruction and overall pollution problems occurring here. There are many activist groups on Facebook and within the different neighborhoods who are doing their part to protect the environment. Although many of the adaptations are good, there is one that worries me. Maltese people speak Maltese and English, but because there is a rising population of foreigners in Malta, the Maltese language is starting to die out in many places because it's not used as much. I take Maltese classes because I believe that it is important to learn the language of the place in which you are living. It also makes my friends and colleagues very excited to see me learning Maltese and appreciating their local heritage.
