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James Debono
Trenching works which created a breach a dam in Wied Ghollieqa, were authorised by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, MaltaToday can reveal.
This was revealed by a spokesperson from the Ministry of Resources and Infrastructure who categorically denied that the Works Department had been responsible for breaching the dam as reported last week in MaltaToday.
The broken dam caused the water that used to gather behind it each time it rained, to gush all the way down to Gzira. This could have aggravated flooding in Gzira after the 13 December downpour.
Water from the valley can easily make its way down to the Gzira coast near the Council of Europe garden in front of KFC restaurant.
The valley runs along the back of Mater Dei hospital all the way down beneath Regional Road to where it ends near the national swimming pool in Gzira. The dam is situated between the University and Kappara.
The Resources and Infrastructure Ministry told this newspaper a MEPA permit authorising one of the owners of a field in Wied Ghollieqa to construct a wall entailed the excavation of a trench on one side of the dam to a depth reaching the Valley floor.
The works created “a large void which permitted the water course to bypass the dam and as a consequence no water was retained behind the dam.”
MEPA had issued a permit in March to sanction an illegally built 43-square metre farmer’s room and a rubble wall on this same site.
The MEPA board ignored its own directorate’s recommendation to refuse this application.
In its submissions, included in the case officer report on the development application, Nature Trust had already reported that the re-erection of the rubble wall, later sanctioned by MEPA, involved a breach in the dam.
“A fence had been thrown down, the dam cut into, and a trench dug into the soil,” Nature Trust commented.
A report by MEPA’s environment directorate also states that increased development in the area will result in more water running off along the sides of the valley, which might cause further soil erosion.
In August MEPA had also issued an enforcement order for ‘trenching works without permit’ in the same site.
MaltaToday asked MEPA who was responsible for these illegal “trenching works” but no reply has been forthcoming. According to Nature Trust, an engine belonging to the Works Department had conducted works on the valley floor in the same month. But the ministry denies conducting unauthorised works leading to the breaching of the dam.
According to the ministry the Works Department had considered installing drains on this site after receiving complaints by farmers suffering damages in their fields but these works were not carried out as a permit was lacking.
The Ministry justified the farmers’ complaints because the highest point of the dam, “effectively a rubble mound retention”, rises higher than the adjoining fields.
As a consequence, storm water was accumulating behind the dam, flooding the adjacent fields when it reached surface level.
Following this, the Works Division “studied” the situation and came to the conclusion that the installation of drains at a level of the adjoining fields would avoid flooding. This system was successfully used in Ghajn Rihana valley.
But according to the ministry the installation of overflows could not be carried out “as official permits were not issued.”
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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