Up until Tuesday night, some 190 tons of debris had been removed after the widespread damage caused by the storms on Monday.

The storms – one of which was blown back over Malta as the winds changed – were more like something one would see in the tropics, rather than the central Mediterranean. On a side note, it might even be time to give them names, hurricane Dom – for example – being the most common name that people on the streets used on the day.

But back to what we are supposed to be discussing. The floods that ravaged Malta the other day could not be prevented – Malta is what it is. It is a small island that is the remnant of a plateau mountain with valleys running down to the sea – what used to be slopes. When water buckets down like that, there is no way of preventing it from gushing down like torrential rivers. But – there are things that we can do to mitigate the damage that is caused. First and foremost, we must stop building in valleys and we must keep them clear. While it is true that the September storms came earlier than usual – we should have been more prepared. Given that weather cycles are changing (just ask the weather men, they have been issuing PRs with strange findings for the past couple of years now) the authorities should start the culvert and roadside cleanups earlier – we need to be ready by mid August. Secondly, more maintenance needs to be carried out on natural watercourses. It is true, there is no excuse to dump things, but people will always do it. Nature is also going to take its toll – natural erosion and collapsing trees being simple examples. The government cleaned up 6,000 tons of rubble in the summer, but still, it was not enough.

And this brings us to another point. Infrastructure on this island is terrible. The new roads held up quite well, but anything going back more than five years just did not cope. Let us take Valley Road, leading down from Msida. It was just not up to the job. Even if it was built to the standards of the new roads post EU membership, it would still have struggled – granted. But it was in a state and that is why it just disintegrated in parts – just as other roads did. We also need to find some way to build storm relief systems into flood prone areas such as Qormi, Birkirkara, Lija, Balzan, and Msida. While it is not entirely inconceivable, let us for a moment discard the notion of rebuilding entire parts of the said zones. There must be something that can be done to drive storm water drains into the ground to at least alleviate the pressure on residents. We must also try and conserve the runoff water, at least to a degree. Many might be thinking of the material damage that the rains caused, when so much could be done with it if it is harvested and stored. We must also think of issues such as soil erosion. The idea might sounds outlandish – but the government must build on its efforts to redistribute silt and soil to farmers.

We do not suffer from sustained floods, such as when rivers creep up or when monsoons settle in tropical basins. This is a small island nation which is very prone to downpours of biblical proportions, coupled with flash floods that move faster than white water rivers. We should start thinking in those terms, and then we might be able to begin to tackle the problems that blight us every time it rains. It was tragic that a man died after being struck by lightning, but the fact that no one drowned by being swept off in the currents is a miracle.