Recently, the On The Dot column included an item on the serious water accumulation along the Ferries, in Sliema.

When I walked by this area and inspected the culverts externally only (see photograph, above) I wondered if ever, in earlier times, ‘one-way’ trapdoors were installed in the area and, perhaps, collapsed over time. The sketch shows such a trapdoor schematically, built inside instead of outside for protection from external damages due to ship movements etc.

The water table in the bay may vary due to different reasons:

1. Low tide or high tide due to storms elsewhere in the Mediterranean, sometimes combined with a particular moon position.

2. The water level of the bay can be seriously affected due to heavy swell from the NE quarter, resulting in waves of up to 50cm high.

Any combination of high tide and heavy swell may result in excessive water inflow from the bay through the culverts onto The Strand. The latter situation could be aggravated by heavy rainfall normally draining off through the same culverts.

A one-way trapdoor as sketched could often facilitate this draining process, especially if the tide in the bay is not high and swell waves would be stopped by the trap door. Receding waves would allow an interrupted stream of rainwater to drain out by pressing the trapdoor open.