The Water Services Corporation has been ordered to pay almost €55,000 in damages to the Grand Hotel, Gozo, after the hotel was damaged in a sewage overflow in 2009.

Magistrate Joanne Vella Cuschieri delivered the judgment following an application by the hotel's owners, Belmont Co Ltd.

The company claimed that in September 2009 the hotel's newly inaugurated ballroom suffered damages as a result of a sewage overflow.

Magistrate Vella Cuschieri heard that the first time the hotel had suffered sewage flooding was in 2005, though the company had not filed legal action against the WSC on that occasion. But Belmont Co Ltd had repeatedly insisted that remedial works had to take place and eventually it had carried out some works itself under the supervision of WSC employees.

In 2009 The Grand Ballroom in the hotel was inaugurated, but a few weeks later, after heavy rainfall, the hotel was again inundated with sewage  and the ballroom was damaged.

The court also heard that despite earlier floods, the building of a new complex of some 60 apartments had been allowed in the neighbourhood without any upgrading of the sewage system taking place.

In conclusion the court found in favour of Belmont Co Ltd and stated that the WSC was responsible for the damages sustained by the hotel. The WSC was ordered to pay the hotel €54,912 in damages