ADPD-The Green Party on Saturday stressed that not enough attention is being given to our water resources.  They remarked that because of years of neglect and inadequate planning, we are still facing the problem of public sewers overflowing into the streets after  heavy rainfall.  This is water provided by Nature and yet we keep throwing this resource away.  This can never be justified, not even if water were plentiful.

Architect Carmel Cacopardo, Deputy Chairperson of ADPD-The Green Party, said that "Sewage ends up in the street because of the lack of enforcement when it comes to sanitation regulations.  These are not regulations that have been created today, but have been in effect for nearly 150 years.  Our ancestors sought to build houses adequately provided  with water cisterns for the harvesting of rainwater.  Now, contrary and in contrast to this, we have many residential buildings built without a water cistern, and thus water ends up in the streets or in the public sewers.

We know the consequences of this change of practice: streets become flooded with rainwater, much of which should have been collected in underground residential water cisterns.  In some cases, flooded streets also smell of sewage, because the sewage system cannot cope with the sudden increase in rainwater, and as a result, the overflow is a mix of rainwater and sewage.

Cacopardo added that there are also consequences that are not immediately visible. "When the sewage system is overwhelmed by rainwater, unless this mixture ends up in the streets, it ends up in
the sewage treatment plants, which are Ta' Barkat in Xgħajra and il-Qammiegħ limits of Mellieħa.  After a storm, the sewage treatment plants are under pressure to process large quantities of water, and because the system cannot keep up with such large volumes, untreated sewage ends up in the sea.  It is a costly consequence, as well as polluting, and this can be avoided only if the authorities ensure that the law is observed.  It is the responsibility of the Planning Authority and the Water Services Corporation that such regulations are observed, he said