Janet Zahra Walker, a new ADPD local councils candidate, recounted the story of how her house collapsed into a construction site back in 2019 during a manifestation against construction organised by her party on Sunday.

She recalled how the head of the then Building Regulation Office had come to the site of the collapse and simply told people to “start thinking of where you can sleep tonight.”

ADPD Chairperson Sandra Gauci meanwhile pointed out how even following the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry, resignations appear to be only a PR move without concrete action, especially following the death of the worker Bari Balla in Sliema.  

Zahra Walker, who will be contesting on the ADPD ticket for the Pieta local council, said she was there to share what she went through 5 years ago when her house collapsed into a construction site, and her life turned upside down. She recalled that she had woken early to take her wife to work and coming home to her family preparing for the day ahead in the kitchen. She said she went into such detail to convey how peaceful their life was.

Suddenly, there was a deafening sound of stones falling and a great commotion in the kitchen and after checking the back of the apartment, where she thought the noise was coming from, she heard her sister saying, “It’s opening” referring to the mortar joints. 

There was a whole commotion throughout the block, Zahra Walker said, with everyone leaving their homes quickly. She said her sister “threw” her 7-year old daughter out of the house and told her “Whatever happens, keep running until you’re outside” and left her to fend for herself despite never taking her eyes off her.

Zahra Walker said her sister then helped her mother, who has mobility problems, to descend and Zahra Walker was the last to leave. On arriving downstairs, she said that she saw the wall beneath their kitchen and living room collapse into the construction site.

Up until a month and a half before the incident Zahra Walker had spoken to various entities, from OHSA to the BRO with the latter telling her to hire a lawyer and an architect, which she did.

The lawyer wrote a letter to the BRO and the architect had a meeting with them where he advised as not to cut flush with the apartment block and to adhere to Law 439 which states that you must leave a minimum of 76cm before cutting.

To this day, Zahra Walker said that she cannot understand, despite her lack of knowledge in construction, how no one thought that digging under a building without support and thought nothing would happen.

After the residents were outside, many representatives arrived but all they did was look on until Michael Ferry from the BRO called a meeting of the residents in the street and said “Start thinking of where you shall be sleeping tonight; at your aunt’s, your grandmother, friends.”

 Zahra Walker remembers telling him, “You came here to split families? You should have come when the grievance was aired. Do you think someone has 4 extra beds?”. But that was the solution of the BRO, she said.

She said that after a week of sleeping in hotels, the Housing Authority gave every family a place to stay. She said that it had told them that the residences were privately-owned and would be paid by the Housing Authority but the bills will be sent to them. Zahra Walker said she doesn’t know and doubts if they were ever paid.

She said that 2 years and 9 months down the line, they had received compensation from their insurance but they had to sign a clause that they didn’t recognise them anymore. She added that with the compensation, they had to spend more than they received due to a rise in the price of materials.

Zahra Walker said she looks forward but in retrospect, she is only sorry that these incidents keep on occurring taking the lives of others such as Miriam Pace and Jean Paul Sofia.

Zahra Walker said the way forward isn’t through resignations and questioned if the foreign workers are licensed. She added that what is certainly needed is the suspension of licenses and warrants.

Gauci, meanwhile, said that the public inquiry of Jean Paul Sofia was meant to be the beginning of the end of carelessness and impunity in construction sector and should have been a ‘manual’ of what needs to be fixed to avoid more deaths like Sofia’s.

She said that this was not the case and after a series of resignations, which appeared to be a PR stunt, there was the death of Bari Balla in a Sliema residence where work was being carried out without a permit.  

She added that for him to be repatriated to be buried, citizens had to fund it and shortly after, BCA CEO resigned.

The Floriana roof collapse, which building had ended up being so hazardous to its residents that they opted to move out for fear of their lives before the collapse, Gauci said, thankfully had a place to move to, but not everyone has that chance. She elaborated that Miriam Pace did not have such a chance and went on to list a number of people who died in the construction sector with the purpose of attempting to call on the conscience of those whose job it was to avoid such loss of life.

Gauci questioned how many people live in fear near a construction site and are terrified to see cracks forming. She also pointed out that there are people who breathe in dust from construction sites and suffer noise pollution, resulting in respiratory disease and mental illness. 

She questioned why there are tens of thousands of empty houses and yet people are still sleeping on the streets. Gauci pointed out how in 2023, 1300 permits for new buildings were issued which had to be processed by 14 OHSA officials and further questioned, “Why make an institution and leave it toothless?”

Gauci said that 55 more have been promised and that the BCA has 11 inspectors and 11 people on the board of directors yet questioned if they are enough and qualified for their role. But she stressed how no one was able to see that 14 officials were too few to deal with 1,300 permits.

Gauci said that these last few years have seen 49 deaths on construction sites that shouldn’t have happened and how worrying it is that one may go to work and not come back home. She said that workers shouldn’t be seen as “disposables” and that their lives are worth more, indeed, she went on to make a call for their proper names to be used.

Gauci appealed to the media to, where possible, make an effort to use the names of the victims because the fact that they remain nameless is also concerning.  She said that the government must become proactive instead of retroactive with the construction sector, furthermore, the price of needless delays is being paid by the victims of the construction sector. 

Gauci called for the urgent need of license suspensions, more severe fines, more surprise onsite inspections, the need for permits of invalid buildings to be rejected within 3 months and the involvement of local councils with regards to high rise buildings. She reiterated the call for the resignation of ministers Miriam Dalli, Silvio Schembri and Stefan Zrinzo Azzoppardi