Valley road widening works in Rabat and elsewhere have caused environmental destruction, the Environmental Resources Authority.

The authority said in a statement on Tuesday that following investigations by its Enforcement Directorate, it found that parts of Trejqa tal-Virtù in Rabat and other rural roads were widened considerably into the adjacent valley with some of them now having two lanes to the detriment of the valley which ended up like a roadside trench.

These works had destroyed the natural environment through the placing of construction material on land which had been colonised with natural vegetation, physically changing the profile of a valley and its natural water flow. The works was being carried out without the necessary permits from the authority.

The ERA said its offices on Tuesday issued a verbal stop order to the contractor - Galletta Construction Ltd, as well as to Infrastructure Malta. A formal Stop and Compliance order was later also issued and notified and this was applicable with immediate effect. The Planning Authority was informed.

The ERA said it was investigating several other cases of interventions on rural and non-rural roads, including at Wied is-Sewda.

Earlier in the day, Times of Malta reported concerns by an environmentalist that country paths in Wied l-Isqof and Wied is-Sewda were being turned into “highways”.

An Infrastructure Malta spokesman said the agency was currently implementing several projects to reconstruct over 40 kilometres of rural roads which had been left in a state of disrepair for many years.