The soccorso – as the channel surrounding the saltpans is called – was intended as a flushing mechanism when the saltpans were constructed by the Knights. The channel starts on the left hand side, goes round the saltpans and back out to the sea through the channel adjacent to the coast road.

In Malta we have a two-foot tide that, experts say, will flush the saltpans, ridding the area of bad odour resulting from stagnant water. Moreover, the soccorso has not been cleaned since 1979 and, as a consequence, it has been filled with algae and mud that are also contributing to the foul smells in the area.

Resources and Infrastructure Minister Ninu Zammit visited the area yesterday. He said that it is hoped the cleaning up will mitigate the bad odours problem.

“We will have to see when the work is finished. For now there will certainly be a bad smell while the mud is being dug up. The soccorso was designed to flush the area so it makes sense that this will kill the bad odours but we will have to see what happens when the work is completed.”

Half of the channel at Salina bay has been cleaned up, Minister Zammit explained, and the work will now carry on in the channel by the road.

This is one of the most complex parts of the operations as the channel is close to the road, a Works Department official said. “To top it all, the channel is narrow, averaging two to four metres, as opposed to the 15 metre channel on the other side. It is too narrow for the machinery to dig up the mud from within it so we will have to figure out a system which will not disrupt traffic.”

The soccorso will eventually be linked to the watercourses in Burmarrad and then up to Ghajn Rihana.

The minister also visited the work at the Burmarrad watercourses which are also being dug up. Most of these canals were constructed during the time when Chadwick lakes were being built (1890-1900). As happened with the channels at the saltpans, these watercourses have been abandoned and ended up filled with rubble, illegally dumped materials, soil and mud, to the point where one could not even tell that there was a trench in the area.

The watercourses catch water from the Dingli area and direct it towards Salina bay. The Salina channels and the Burmarrad watercourses have not been connected yet, but the architects working on the project have erected a number of dams in Burmarrad that will retain rainwater, which will then seep into the water-table beneath.

Over 1,200 metres of watercourses were cleaned. Most of them have also been widened, Mr Zammit explained. A tunnel that runs under the Burmarrad bypass was also cleared of the rubble that blocked it. The water flowing down the valley used to end up in the middle of the road because the tunnels were obstructed, he continued. Over 1,300 cubic metres of rubble were unearthed from beneath the bridge and the surrounding watercourses, totalling over 1,150 metres of watercourses cleaned.

The widening and rehabilitation of these watercourses began in May and carried on throughout the summer. Similar work was also carried out in Marsa, with both projects aimed at alleviating the flooding problems in the respective