Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani yesterday stressed the importance of getting the Balluta Bay sewage leak sorted out as soon as possible and does “not want to see a day go by without anything being done to rectify the situation”.
Speaking to all parties concerned – the Water Services Corporation, the Department of the Public Health and court appointed experts, magistrate Padovani said: “Gentlemen, something has to be done to minimise the outflow of sewage into the sea and we have to get a permanent fix to this problem as quickly as possible.”
She continued: “We have a situation of high peril here. There are hotels and restaurants all along the coast, families with children go walking there. I will not see a day go by without work being carried out to sort this mess out.”
The issue revolves around a water culvert that has somehow been inundated with sewage from the area’s drains system. This has caused raw effluent and even toilet paper to be spewed out into Balluta Bay, causing what all witnesses and experts involved in the case are calling an “intolerable stench”. The WSC contends that the culvert is not on their plans and is not their responsibility; however, it is now becoming apparent that it must be connected to the sewer main in some way as a solid block of sewage material is now stuck inside. Most parties (relying on a hunch until proper investigations are carried out with remote cameras) believe that it could be down to what is known in the trade as a “backflow”.
Public Health Department representative Malcolm Vella Haber yesterday said that over the past few days, they had received a tremendous amount of complaints about the stench in the area, which is apparently much worse at night. He said that on 4 September at noon, an inspection of the drains showed that they were blocked. A bowser was brought in; however the blockage could not be moved. A few days later, he said, the bay was brown due to effluent and that water samples taken from the area showed a very high count of faecal coliphorms in the sea. He said that on 7 September, the situation was worse and that raw sewage and toilet paper could be seen in the bay. He said that several manholes were opened and that the sewage was simply not moving and was jam packed. He also said that the “water culvert” was also full of sewage and was also not moving at all. He also noticed that air bubbles were coming to the surface “a clear indication that there is a leak somewhere or another”, he said.
To test their theory, the inspectors put green dye in the “water culvert” and this only took 15 minutes to find its way into the bay. This process was repeated and dye was found in the actual sewer. Mr Vella Haber said: “We can therefore conclude that this culvert is somehow connected to the sewer and that there are leaks.” He also entertained the possibility of their being some old houses still connected to the “water culvert” which some parties suggest was part of an older mains system. “But what we can say is that phenomenal amounts of sewage were in the sea. One day the water was totally brown.”
Health inspector John Seychell also testified yesterday and backed up what was said. He added: “On one particular inspection it was a disaster. The stench was coming up through the manholes, people couldn’t even eat at the restaurants they were sitting in. I could smell it even before I got out of my car.”
The final conclusion was that there needs to be a two-pronged approach to establishing the exact problem. One involves using cameras to sift through the sewage and find where the leak is. The other is to dig up part of the ‘water culvert’ where it is blocked with sand so as to find out if and how it is connected to the drains. In addition, the WSC said it was willing to co-operate with the Health Department in any way it could to help solve the problem. In fact, bowsers will be used to pump water through the clogged drains to make sure that sewage levels are kept to a minimum. The inquiry continues.