I fully agree with Robert Ghirlando (The Sunday Times December 27) as to whether it was useful to spend so much money and time to guard against the Millennium Bug that was never there. It brought back to me memories of that day.
At that time, I was Director General of the Works Division and I formed part of the Challenge 2000 task force the government had set up in order to oversee the work undertaken by the major service suppliers and to make alternative arrangements to keep strategic services operating in case the 'bug' had to hit these suppliers.
Obviously, our main concern was a potential power failure at Enemalta as the non-operation of the two power stations would have crippled the island.
Although reports came in that the corporation had tested its equipment and that it was satisfied that its computer systems were Y2K compliant, it was also evident that we could not sit back and leave everything to chance.
We set out to assure ourselves that in case of a power failure, strategic and essential systems would still be able to operate. Our attention, at least my attention, was focused on St Luke's Hospital, the water supply and the sewage network.
Although St Luke's had its own automatic emergency generator system, this was not considered to be enough if a power failure had to last for a long time.
Our sewage system depends largely on electricity-driven pumping systems which convey a large part of the sewage generated to the south to Wied Għammieq.
If a power failure lasting several hours or days had to occur, the sumps at these pumping stations would fill to their capacity and overflow, thus creating a potential health hazard.
These strategic systems were manned with standby emergency generators capable of being activated within minutes. An adequate supply of fuel was also provided and arrangements were made to supply more fuel if these stocks ran out.
The procurement of these emergency generators was not a problem for us as we had thought of such a requirement early in the day and made the necessary arrangements. Some private establishments, such as restaurants and other public places of entertainment who wanted to ensure that they could keep operating past midnight did, however, encounter problems as the emergency generators were then in short supply.
On that night, besides the open-air celebrations that were taking place at Floriana, the official opening of the still incomplete St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, graced with the John David Mooney's light installation, was also on the programme.
At quarter to midnight, together with my wife, I made my way out of St James Cavalier, armed with a mobile transceiver set, and drove out of Valletta without any fixed direction.
Our main destination, physically or by telephone or radio, was always to be the Armed Forces' Control Room at Luqa, which was acting as the single point of reference for any eventuality. Midnight came and went.
A couple of minutes later, still sitting in my jeep, my mobile transceiver set came with messages from my engineers who were manning a number of strategic locations saying everything was OK.
The first minutes and hours of 2000 rolled on and together with my wife I could enjoy myself in the company of fellow employees leaving behind the Y2K scare.