Why is it that only hours after a sudden, relatively short downpour, many streets in Birkirkara, Lija, Balzan and Iklin are flooded, making it impossible to cross from one side to the other without a serious risk to one’s health? I say this because it is not clean rainwater one is dealing with here but brownish and foul-smelling torrents.
The sewage infrastructure is obviously insufficient because it fails to keep up with the amount of rainwater directed into it from the surrounding areas. The sewers were possibly sufficient half a century ago but not today.
The scene after a short downpour is often disgusting, as the streets reek of raw sewage, human excrement and all sorts of flotsam, including dead rats, washing up against parked cars and mingling with every other scrap found on the surface.
Does anyone care about all this? Does anyone take any remedial action to clear the mess, clean and disinfect the area and restore some peace of mind to we who inhabit this cursed patch of Maltese land?
Apart from the fact that we are all taxpayers, it is our basic right to have a healthy living environment. And it is the authorities’ sacrosanct duty to provide basic infrastructural services that really do function without much beating around the bush.
The streets reek of sewage for days after the rain has come and gone. The used toilet paper sticking to the sides of our vehicles remains there, parched by the sun, and it is left to us to clean up the mess and endure the discomfort of such a ridiculous situation.
Even when the roads dry up all the foul material spilled from the sewage mains dry out in every nook and cranny. And the odd dead rat still lies in the same place no matter how many telephone calls are made to the local council.
Readers would be forgiven for thinking I am exaggerating, but I assure them I am not. I am referring to Naxxar Road in Birkirkara at the very beginning of the Birkirkara Bypass, at the Iklin end.
For at least 20 years, we have been told, ad nauseam, that a major project will be launched to solve this problem once and for all. Yet today, two decades later, we still cross the road at our own risk!