House flooded by sewage

I refer to Kevin Tabone's letter (The Sunday Times, October 18), in which he complains that sewage 'flowed outside his front door'.

It pales when compared with the sewage that flooded the ground floor of my house, an area of about 250 square metres, to a depth of about 75cm, damaging furniture and ruining carpets, following half an hour of torrential rain.

My house is not in the middle of nowhere, where the infrastructure could be of the lowest standard. It is located in Anton Schembri Street, Kappara, opposite the Russian Embassy, next door to Chiswick School in San Gwann.

The incident was reported to the police and to the Drainage Department as soon as it happened. Later that morning I also reported the incident to the San Gwann council.

Workers from the Drainage Department arrived on the scene the same morning. When they inspected a manhole in front of my house, which is quite deep, they found it full of sludge, almost up to street level.

It didn't take them long to solve the problem, because within 20 minutes, the blockage was resolved after the main public sewer was flushed out with pressurised water, and the flood inside my house subsided in a matter of minutes.

However, there was residue of sludge and an acrid stench inside the whole house, besides the damage caused to furniture and carpets, some of which is irreparable.

The ground floor of my house is still a mess, and my family is still suffering the trauma and shock we experienced on that unforgettable morning.

I am still very worried, because I was told by the workmen that a similar blockage will not recur for "at least for another year", which means that unless that particular public sewer is flushed prior to the first rains after next summer, there could be a repeat performance.

During the 50 years I have lived in this house, a blockage of this magnitude, with such consequences, has never occurred. Yet today, in spite of the existence of local councils, supported by departments purposely set up to look after the environment, boosted with state-of-the-art equipment at their disposal to maintain such public sewers, the people accountable for the management of such maintenance do not know how to prevent the blockage of public sewers.