Alternattiva Demokratika’s Attard local councillor Ralph Cassar told The Malta Independent that Triq il-Kappella Tal-Mirakli has been flooding ever since the Dpeak business centre “comprising of hundreds of flats and shops was built on a former ODZ area.”
Cassar sent this newsroom an email following coverage of the flooding on Wednesday. This newsroom had reported that workers were left fuming after nearby road works caused the rain to flood the street. One business owner had explained that clients were struggling to get in and out of the building while works were underway.
Cassar however painted a different picture, implying that the flooding was due to the business centre itself. “The fields previously there, on the outskirts of Attard and Lija used to soak up rain water in the not too distant past. This huge area was brought into the development zone through the Nationalist Government’s infamous rationalization scheme, approved by Nationalist members of Parliament in 2006. Alternattiva Demokratika and I personally had objected strongly against this project in particular, and the irresponsible and criminal extension of the development zones.”
Cassar said that “Lawrence Gonzi, George Pullicino, and the Nationalist members of Parliament had ignored all representations and even refused to conduct a strategic environmental assessment to assess the need or not of such an extension.”
He declared that Triq il-Kappella Tal-Mirakli is a mess. “The business owners should ask who caused the mess. Well, yet again I’m sorry to inform them that the mess was caused by the works to connect Dpeak to the water system and the sewers, and by the heavy vehicles used during the construction of the block. It would be interesting to know whether such a building has any wells or if the rain water collected on its huge roof is being directed onto the road – exacerbating the flooding problem.”
Cassar argues that the business owners should take their complaints to the developer from whom they bought or are renting their shops, “for which I am sure they are paying through their noses. Or else they might ask local MP and PN Deputy Leadership candidate David Agius, who voted in favour of developing 2 million metres squares of land, including Dpeak for ideas on how to solve the problem. Maybe the developer who was allowed to create this mess should pay for the mitigation measures. Or maybe they could write to the current Labour government Minister and his consultants on planning and ask them to come up with serious planning policies instead of continuing on the same path as their predecessors. Perhaps they can make developers cough up the money for mitigation measures, since they are doing so well in what they call ‘l-aqwa zmien’.”
“People always get the policymakers they deserve – the Dpeak, Triq il-Kappella tal-Mirakli in Attard business owners’ predicament is a textbook case study of this. The developer is reaping the benefits of careless irresponsible policies, while others carry the brunt of the problems. As usual it is a case of private gains and public loss.”