Construction workers make progress on the flood relief project in Valley Road, Qormi. Photos: Paul Spiteri LucasConstruction workers make progress on the flood relief project in Valley Road, Qormi. Photos: Paul Spiteri Lucas

Malta should not come to a standstill with the winter downpours of next year as the flood relief project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015.

The €52 million project, co-funded by the EU, is designed to ease flooding in 12 localities: Balzan, Lija, Attard, Iklin, Birkirkara, Gżira, Msida, Żebbuġ, Qormi, Marsa, Żabbar and Marsascala.

It was meant to be completed by the end of this year, however, the last kilometre of the underground tunnels between Tal-Qroqq and Ta’ Xbiex are being enlarged and the whole project should now be completed in February.

Works in the Żebbuġ, Qormi and Marsa areas would be completed by the end of this June, those at Żabbar and Marsascala by mid-September and the completion date of the largest part of the job – extending from Wied Inċita, in Attard and Mosta, to Ta’ Xbiex – was set at the end of February, project leader Carm Mifsud Borg told Times of Malta.

Some water through Birkirkara will be pumped in a 10,000-cubic-metre reservoir in Gżira

He was speaking in Valley Road, Qormi, where work on underground culverts is halfway completed and three bridges have been rebuilt.

Two underground culverts – each measuring four by 1.25 metres – will stretch about 560 metres across part of the valley that crosses with Mill Street.

Every year, this area makes headlines as cars are carried by floodwaters and then get stuck beneath the bridge, causing blockages and exacerbating problems.

Water streaming down Wied is-Sewda, side streets from the direction of Santa Venera and from the upper parts of Qormi will be diverted to the new culverts.

A dam in Wied Inċita, further up in Qormi, has been modified so that excess water from Rabat, Ta’ Qali and Attard is diverted to the Birkirkara and Ta’ Xbiex tunnels instead of flowing on to Qormi.

The underground culverts in the Qormi valley could not go deeper because the valley bed is very close to sea level and digging further down would mean that the water would not flow southwards, towards Marsa.

Similar underground culverts are being excavated in Marsa, from near the sports complex across Aldo Moro Street.

Another two underground 90-metre tunnels near the Marsa golf course complex will handle rainwater streaming down from Żebbuġ and Qormi.

Mr Mifsud Borg explained that, during excavation works in all 12 localities, no adequate culverts were found. The only culverts present were small and could never take the volume of water that flooded the roads.

The new tunnels in Birkirkara vary between three and six metres in diameter.

In all, about 11 kilometres of tunnels will be dug in this component of the project and then covered in two layers of specialised concrete to prevent damage by the gushing runoff water.

Some of the water that goes through Birkirkara and ends up in Ta’ Xbiex will be pumped in a 10,000-cubic-metre reservoir in Gżira. This will gradually percolate into the aquifer, providing it with replenishment.

This soak-away reservoir is estimated to have a potential of percolating about 300,000 cubic meters of rainwater in a year.

Referring to Żabbar, Mr Mifsud Borg said part of the water flowing towards Marsascala would also be gathered in tunnels dug under the Żabbar-Marsascala road and stored before it overflows into the sea.

It will be pumped back to a dam on the outskirts of Marsascala so it can also percolate to the aquifer.

Not all the storm water captured by this project can be re-used because there is so much, it is not economically feasible to store and treat it all.

The network of tunnels would, hopefully, relieve the island of heavy flooding whenever there is a downpour.

However, Mr Mifsud Borg insisted on the need for people to develop a civic sense of duty, pointing out that a lot of rubbish was carried by floodwaters and blocked road gratings that lead storm waters to the tunnels.

Asked about delays in the project, four years since its launch and two years since construction started, he said work was sometimes held up when war shelters, archaeological remains and wells were unearthed and because of leaking drainage systems.

Unrecorded underground public utilities – water, electricity, sewage and telephony services – were also occasionally found.

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