The ADT, Mellieħa local council, or whoever it is who is (un)accountable for the supervision of roadworks at Triq is-Sliem in Santa Marija Estate, Mellieħa, should at least have the decency of limiting the serious aggravation and disruption that the residents there are being put through.
Works on this 600-metre dirt road started in early June with promises that it would be done within a couple of weeks. What materialised in two weeks however was abysmal even by Third-World standards. One third of the road was trenched up right through the middle and left abandoned for one month, with the heavy equipment left there to make access more difficult. Work practices since have proven to be lessons of what to avoid in the trade. Despite residents' complaints, matters have not improved. Upper-market tourists holidaying in villas there are known to have given up and refused to tolerate conditions.
The contractor breaks rules and norms with banana-republic impunity. His insensitivity towards the residents borders on the offensive. His heavy equipment is left on site haphazardly to the danger and inconvenience of residents and visitors. The filled-up trench is left unlevelled to the extent that vehicles avoid it at all costs. A mortar mix that takes some three days to solidify is thrown unevenly in the trenches on Saturdays, without warning of the danger.
Locations for manholes are left gapingly unmarked; trenches lie dangerously open and not illuminated overnight, even during weekends. Works are carried out with only one person doing the digging, loading the truck which he then drives away to unload. When the digging is taking place the truck is left beside the site so that the street is closed to traffic. Many a time, residents are forced to abandon their car and trudge their way with shopping bags over dust and stone. To crown it all, the works are not constant and with no end in sight for the disruption of normal life.
Suffering residents have lost hope in finding out which authority is accountable for all of this disgrace. After 20 years in the frying-pan of legal struggle against the company that owns the Santa Marija Estate to win a legitimate right of decent access, residents have fallen in the fire of authorities passing the buck.
Make no mistake, Triq is-Sliem is not worthy even of EU frontier status. Conditions here make most of backward Africa proud.