Each time it rains heavily, people living in areas that are flooded fear the worst. By now, drivers know which parts of the country are full of scurrying rainwater, and avoid them, meaning that roads that are not normally heavy in traffic get jammed. Great damage is caused to the infrastructure as the water takes its natural path towards the lowlands, taking with it whatever it finds.

For years we have spoken of ways and means how to control rainwater floods. We have tried to build roads that cater for this occasional occurrence, having water culverts constructed underneath to enable the water to pass from under the road surface. We cannot say that we have been totally successful, in the sense that the extent of the flooding is better-controlled. Many of these roads still end up waterlogged as the culverts cannot sustain heavy downpours to the full.

This week we have heard Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino announce a €56 million project that will seek to eliminate flooding and, as a plus, will also harvest around 700,000 cubic metres of rainwater every year.

Construction work will start in the coming weeks, and the project should be completed by 2015 so that Malta will be able to benefit from European Union funds that have been allocated for it.

The people who live in the areas in question will no doubt welcome such a project. Of course, one has to wait and see how effective it is going to be, and that will only be known when the project will be completed and the first rains come. Still, that something is finally being done about it is already a step forward.

Mr Pullicino said that the project will be of benefit to half the population, including those who drive their cars in the areas that are normally flooded. That is the extent of the project, a holistic exercise that will hopefully finally bring to an end the difficulties faced each time a heavy storm hits Malta.

In the past, various administrations have tried to carry out work related to flooding in bits and pieces, here and there, and this meant that the problems could have been solved somewhere but erupted in other places. No-one ever bothered to take a comprehensive look at the whole situation, and try to deal with the issue in its totality.

Now we have this plan, and we hope that it will work out, for the benefit of all.