Updated at 4.10pm with WSC statement

Xlendi flooded on Wednesday afternoon after heavy rains in neighbouring towns combined to form a river flowing down to the popular seaside destination.

A video uploaded on Malta Weather's Facebook page shows the brown water rushing down the village’s main road all the way to the water’s edge. 

Flooding from heavy downpours are a regular occurrence for Xlendi residents and visitors throughout the winter months.

They have often complained of having to wade through several inches of water, as rain runoff rushes down Xlendi valley.

WATCH: Xlendi floods leave locals in the soup

Rose Attard, who manages the Boat House Restaurant, told the Times of Malta that the rains often meant businesses having to shut shop for the day.

“When it floods here, access is either limited or completely cut off. Cars are not able to reach Xlendi, and those people who are already here won’t be able to get in or out of restaurants,” she said.

In a seperate Facebook post, Gozitan MP Chris Said lamented what he said was an insufferable smell of drainage that had filled the Xlendi air.

He asked whether it was true that a sewage pump in the area’s subterranean network had broken down in recent days and whether an outflow of drainage had been washed into the sea.

However, the Water Services Corporation said that the sewage infrastructure at Xlendi worked as normal, without either blockages or spikes, as could be verified from its IT monitoring systems which would otherwise have shown erratic outputs.

It added that the last scheduled preventive maintenance on the sewage system at Xlendi was conducted on Tuesday August 14 and included a major clean-up including of secondary roads.

"Although in Xlendi the situation appears well under control even when it rains, this cannot be said for all areas. Therefore, the corporation reiterates that stormwater runoff should never be connected to the sewer, a practice which is illegal, both since this floods the sewer and also because it represents health risks to the connected households/establishments," it warned, adding that only human toilet waste and degradable toilet paper should be discharged in the system

Thundery and gusty showers were forecast for Wednesday although some areas saw no rain at all. The Met Office is predicting more rain for Thursday and Friday, with the sun back in time for the weekend, with temperatures still in the mid-30s.

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