The popular beach of Golden Bay has been completely and irreversibly covered in concrete following what has been described as a ‘hilarious misunderstanding’.
As a handful of bathers took advantage of the unseasonal sunny weather, government workers driving heavy machinery descended on the beach and began pouring concrete onto the sand.
After an hour, enforcement officers from ERA arrived to put a halt to the works, but the beach had already been completely covered.
“There’s actually a really funny explanation for this”, said project manager Michael Tanti, of Bigilla Construction Ltd.
“Yesterday I got a phone call from a government official who told me to ‘concrete Golden Bay’. I thought it was a weird thing to do, but who am I to question this government when we’ve been getting so much work lately?”
“It turns what the official actually said was ‘Go clean Golden Bay’,” Mr Tanti said.
David Farrugia, who works at the OPM, confirmed the part he played in the mix-up.
“I meant to call the head of the Cleansing and Maintenance Division because a lot of seaweed had washed up onto the beach, but instead I accidentally called the contractor, who then misunderstood me. What are the chances?” Farrugia said.
“Long story short – the beach is now covered in concrete and there’s no way to reverse what’s been done. Mind you, some people prefer concrete beaches. Take my auntie Anna, for example. She hates sand, says it gets everywhere.”
“Or maybe we could put another hotel on it,” Farrugia said as his eyes widened and he appeared to go into some kind of trance.
In a statement, Environment Minister José Herrera shrugged his shoulders and said, “Oh well.”
