Video: Heavy downpour floods central areas of Malta

J. Abela

Nov 16th 2008, 12:17

When are we going to grow up and look forward towards the future. What was said by a political figure decades ago doesn't really apply in year 2008!. Lets stop making references to the past and move on....irrelevant who and which colour.....

C. Busuttil

Nov 16th 2008, 05:58

@Andrew Hili
Dom Mintoff stepped down from PM back in 1984, 24 years ago. Since then five other legislatures have been elected. Are you alleging that all the buildings in the valleys present as at today, have all been built/permits granted solely under Mintoff's administration? Or is it wiser to say that subsequent Governments have not sought to fix such a problem as created?

A better explanation to your article is hence much appreciated, especially after lifting your anti-Mintoff-hatred-eye-patch from your face.

To discredit someone in entirety, a counter reaction, and hence eradication of this person's deeeds should have been taken up, and supposedly, 20 years would have been enough. Nonetheless as has happened in almost all of Mintoff's deeds, following Governements have sought to build on his foundations rather than pulling these down, and I am not only refering infrastructurally.

PS - Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't the foundations of the proposed vegetable market at the foot of Saqqajja hill in the 1960's built on a valley? ... sure it was and it slipped down all the way through it too!!

Joseph Ellul

Nov 16th 2008, 05:50

At last some good rain. I love to see it rain in Malta. It takes away the heavy air pollution and then you can actually take a deeeep breath and fill your lungs. The air is fresher and your eyes can see further. Even the sounds around you seem crisper especially the song birds............??? Sorry, no birds left in Malta. Anyway, lets get back to the rain. Now , Gozo. That is a different story but not let's talk about it yet. We will wait until the Maltese have moved there and destroyed it too.

Andrew Hili

Nov 16th 2008, 00:59

This video tells me just one thing....you mess with nature, and you are doomed!

Thanks to Mintoff's idea to destroy valleys and build them up so that his "friends" can have nice plots...especially Iklin followed by Birkirkara and Msida, we have been having these flood problems ever since.
This flooding does not happen in Gozo....why you may ask...well the valleys are still valleys...need I say more!

With regards to the owners of the vehicles being so nicely swept away....why are you concerned about this? They are the irresponsible one and no one else....if they park there and obviously they know what happens there, they should be on the alert on rainy days and move their cars away with the first signs of flooding, instead of leaving them there, and when the water starts moving the cars, they start taking pictures and photos!!!

And why should we complain? At least once every so often we get our own local river!!!!:-) Fjording it with a Land Rover is the ultimate thrill...hehehe!

Julie Margarson

Nov 16th 2008, 00:28

St. Paul's Bay bypass has a run off from the road, couldnt all new roads have the same, plus if new areas are built, particularly industrial areas, why not accomodate a run off lake into the area because it is bound to have so much concrete and not enough land to drain. Birkakara would also benefit from drain off like this, if it could be made as a reservoir would not that help in the future?

C.Camilleri

Nov 15th 2008, 19:02

@ Stephen Micallef . And labour had been in Govt for 16 yrs too and the solution was to built wells on our roofs. Also In those days of plenty water supply used to be suspended for days in a wk.

G.Mangion

Nov 15th 2008, 18:03

@ Charles Busuttil ---If my memory serves me right it was the Mintoff administration that started the rehabilitation of valleys, Charles at mintoff's times, Kollox ta KAFKAF SAR, JUST TO SAY WE ( THE MINTOFF' S REGIME ARE DOING SOMETHING !! Even if your memory Does not serves You right, iva ghazel wahda tajba habib, or you dont want to admit that Malta's infrastrcture has changed, and happens to be the Most WONDERFUL Country in the Med !!

Thanks To the P.N in POWER.

@Stephen Micallef sInce you can provide and easy solution gratis to the Govt as you said why dont you share your Wisdom to the authorities, that would be so sane for you, it means More EWROS in your Pocket LOL.

clive borg

Nov 15th 2008, 13:59

sur victor the water that is currently being wasted on the roads is going into the fissures, seabed and into the sea.....

R. Azzopardi

Nov 15th 2008, 11:03

Watching this video brings back memories of the 15th September 2003. I happened to be driving in the Msida / B'Kara area during a flash flood in my trusty Land Rover (yes, I know that I'm going to be criticised for driving a gas-guzzling, planet destroyer) and I helped countless people get their vehicles and themselves to higher ground when flood waters were threatening to drag them away.

Fast forward to 2008. I am still driving the same vehicle but am now penalised. Will I be out on the roads doing my bit to help others during another flash flood? CERTAINLY NOT!

J. Schembri

Nov 15th 2008, 07:11

@Charles Busuttil : the PN governments removed the dams from inside the valleys notably the Marsa canal , which was designed to drain water not hold it. Building a dam in a canal is like blocking the canal and raising the water level to the height of the dam . Your memory does not serve you write , it was the late Minister Lorry Sant who ordered such projects .
PN governments unblocked the Birkirkara Valley , and raised the side walls of the Marsa canal and clealeared up the Salini area.

No major projects are needed , all we have to do is harvest rain water in our buildings and use it.

BTW from what I saw on the MIA weather site 23mm of rain poured on the area of B'Kara in less than an hour (12.30 to 13.30) other areas had only 7mm of rain.

Steve Rogers

Nov 15th 2008, 01:01

Victor,

Get a new keyboard, I had a hard trying to understand your message. Some areas in Malta get flooded so badly that the least a government in power for 20 years can do is fix them. Aldo Moro Street was like the Amazon river and Qormi near Pavi was becoming swampland!

victr vella

Nov 14th 2008, 22:07

To al concerned about the water being wasted I say do you want to drink sewer water or water contaminated with lean and oil from ther roads? also Valley road gets water from a quarter of the surface area of Malta,Waht I saty without being a govberment apologist is this, doas Marsa flood any longer? does the lower part of Luqa road Qormi flood any more or the lower part od Manuel Dimech stret in qormi, it is only thanks to the valley clean ing and restoration carried out recently.

clive borg

Nov 14th 2008, 21:29

we should try to use our resources and use this valley to make a hydro-electric power station...
thanks for the energy saving bulbs but on this island the bulbs are not going to make the differance to our wasted resources...... something should be done on a larger scale by the government on what we are having free (rain) and we could use much more better instead of waisting it......

Charles Busuttil

Nov 14th 2008, 20:55

@ G.Mangion
If my memory serves me right it was the Mintoff administration that started the rehabilitation of valleys, the building of water catchments and the rehabilitation of Wied il-Qleja with the assistance of Italian experts. It was the PN in government who stopped this project and left everything to go back to its dilapidated state. PN indeed!!!!!

Stephen Micallef

Nov 14th 2008, 20:49

@G. Mangion
Any sane and reasonable person (unless he is a government apologist) would rightfully expect that a party in government for over 20 years would have solved this issue by now. So far we've had nothing but a lot of blah blah blah from various ministers, many ideas of projects to solve the problem, and many promises of EU funds to finance a solution. As a layman living in the area most affected by floods, I can provide and easy solution gratis: go to the root cause and solve the problem at source by building water catchment reservoirs below Naxxar, on Mosta Road leading to Naxxar Road, and at Iklin. Whatever water remains can be channelled by underground tunnels (not pipes!) to additional reservoirs in Balzan. Birkirkara and Msida. I can guarantee you that not a drop will remain on the roads o ends up in Msida creek.

f sultana

Nov 14th 2008, 19:59

Build in valleys...and that's what you get... nature rules but unfortunately human beings haven't realised it yet!

Michele Sarlo

Nov 14th 2008, 18:44

I agree with the people that mentioned that all that water is wasted and should be collected.

A few things that have to be considered is that that water is highly contaminated. So the use of that water has to be properly controlled.

A highly sophisticated water treatment plant has to be built to be able to process that water for human consumption ( as suggested by some people) and still the same water must be treated to a satisfacory standard to be used for irrigation.

In my opinion that road should have never be constructed at the bottom of a valley like the one in MSida Valley. What do you expect.!

Zap Branagan

Nov 14th 2008, 18:09

I was in a car at the time of the downpour, and I was amazed to see all the water flooding out of the fields and onto the roads. The water was brown, which means topsoil, folks.
Malta's topsoil washes away to the sea. It won't take long until this is a barren rock. Why can't the farmers dig wells and catch this water?

G .Mangion

Nov 14th 2008, 17:38

@ Mario Farrugia

Talking about Shame, who is going to feel ashamed ? The P.N In Goverment, or the late ,mlp ???.
The Gov't is Tackling this Problem now and as You may well know, its not an easy task !!
mlp never took this matter in a serious way they had all the time in the world. But now that The P.N is there,( And there to STAY ! ) Everything is the P.N's Fault !!!
STOP THE RAIN Dr GONZI, OR WE WILL MAKE ANOTHER MANESTIFATION !!!

Mario Farrugia

Nov 14th 2008, 17:10

And this is what we pay our road tax for!!!! Shame, shame, shame!! I just wish I could force our arrogant, pompous Ministers to drive once, just once, through these waters, IN THEIR OWN CARS!

Vincent Galea

Nov 14th 2008, 15:28

Long traffic jams?.........
A team of researchers in Germany are studying how humans can apply ant-thinking to clean up clogged roads and make traffic flow faster The study headed by an intelligent expert hopes to learn how ants figure out their way out in moving around in crowded colonies.
The researchers reported that they found that just before the shortest route got congested outgoing ants diverted incoming ants to another route and traffic.They also studied them on complex routes and longer ones.No problems - traffic flows !!
With a little help from our ants. :)

v.pulis

Nov 14th 2008, 15:22

How many millions of litres of fresh water have gone to waste in this one shower? how many millions of euros can we save ever year if we were to collect this water in huge reservoirs without the need to employ the reverse osmosis plants? meanwhile, everybody is talking about striking oil. Talk about priorities!!!

Keith Davis

Nov 14th 2008, 15:13

When are we going to solve this problem, in another 20 years?
We pride ourselves to be part of europe and the european union but when one drives in Valley Road in Msida after a simple rainfall this would look like a third world country. This is surely a life threathening danger to anyone passing through that road.

This is surely one of the issues the goverment failed miserably throughout so many years.

What a shame!

dusty william

Nov 14th 2008, 14:52

Whats new? this has been going on for ever!
Its a pitty that all that water is wasted.

Ch. Harris

Nov 14th 2008, 14:37

Looking at the picture above, its terrible for these vehicles owners to have to go through such misery when it rains in that area of Malta, its well and good to talk about extra registration tax+Vat+and what ever the government wants to burden the vehicles owners with, but what about the misery added to their burden..what about doing something so when it rains the water drains away without causing such a mess.

Steve Rogers

Nov 14th 2008, 14:37

What a waste of water. If a proper water catchment/drainage system is implimented all this water would have been put to good use allieviating our aquifiers and RO systems.

Rather then harping about energy saver bulbs I prefer to hear what is going on about the case in point as it would have a bigger impact on W&E charges as well improve the social dimension