The flood relief project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015, ensuring that Malta will not come to a standstill when it rains heavily.

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

It features a network of 11kmtunnels to reservoirs and an outfall at Ta' Xbiex.

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 project was meant to be completed by the end of this year, however, the last kilometre of the 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 will 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 – is set at the end of February, project leader Carm Mifsud Borg said.

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