Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino said yesterday that the government could not afford to meet the requests for compensation made by farmers following the September 15 storms as priority was being given to works to avoid a repetition of the flooding.

He said 240 hectares of farmland suffered storm damage last September, of which 140 hectares were in the Burmarrad area. The claims for compensation amounted to Lm1.3 million, apart from damages to crops.

The government had decided, however that rather than direct payouts, priority should be given to capital works aimed at avoiding a repetition of such flooding.

Mr Pullicino was speaking during a debate requested by the opposition on the September 15 flooding.

He said it was worth pointing out that in the last 40 years, despite several floods, farmers had only twice received direct financial assistance for storm damage, both under a PN government: at the end of 1988 when they got Lm77,000 and in October 1994 when they got Lm150,000. They had not even been given financial assistance following the severe 1979 storm. In some cases assistance was in the form of repairs to walls, or through the provision of fruit trees.

Although farmers were not receiving direct financial assistance following the September storms, they were already receiving substantial assistance for rural development through government and EU funds.

Mr Pullicino said that at Burmarrad, the worst hit area as far as farmers were concerned, the work was being carried out over several phases. They included a major clean-up and re-opening of water courses from Wied Rihana to behind Burmarrad church and repairs to the embankment there.

That was being followed by the reopening of a 1.5km water course from Burmarrad church to Salina, work which had been requested even after the 1979 storm but never carried out.

In other parts of his speech, Mr Pullicino said it was wrong for the opposition to lead the people to think that the PN government had done nothing to prevent floods. It was worth recalling that one of its first projects in the 1980s was to correct the so called flood relief project at Msida carried out by the Mintoff government, which had even caused seawater flooding on sunny days.

True, much remained to be done in the area of flood relief and Mepa policy documents showed that action was being taken.

Referring to remarks about industrial vehicles parked in Qormi valleys, Mr Pullicino said the government had identified industrial land for the parking of trailers at Luqa. It would take 100 trailers and a number of workshops for SMEs as well as offices. The first application for a permit to develop this site was submitted in 2002. He hoped that this process would not take too long.

As for complaints on building development in the valleys around Qormi, it was worth recalling that in 1990, parliament had reduced the area for building development despite a vote to the contrary by the Labour opposition.

Mr Pullicino also pointed out that it was a Nationalist government which set up the Civil Protection Department, which had played such a vital role in the September floods.

Winding up, Marie-Louise Coleiro asked how it took the government 17 years to discover that water courses at Burmarrad needed to be opened.

The setting up of an industrial parking area at Luqa had also been under discussion for years, and in the meantime heavy industrial vehicles had continued to block the valleys at Qormi.

It was now clear that farmers were not to be given any financial compensation for the damages they had suffered. The opposition, she said, was not speaking about cheques but assistance. But the farmers were not getting any, because after 17 years in office, the PN government had decided to make capital expenditure to prevent flooding.

Ms Coleiro said that the Civil Protection Department had been started by a Labour government. The employees deserved to be praised for their service but the government had a duty to equip them well.