Minister incorrect to blame road flooding entirely on climate change, Carmel Cacopardo says

ADPD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said even though no one can control the amount of rainfall, Infrastracture Minister Ian Borg is incorrect to blame flooding entirely on climate change.

“When Ian Borg says climate change is to blame, he’s not entirely correct. It’s not bad weather that floods our roads but lack of adequate management of this water resource over many years,” Cacopardo said.

Borg said that climate change is to blame for excess rainfall that flooded roads on Thursday.

Cacopardo said that despite the delaration of a ‘climate emergency’ by the Maltese Parliament last year, nothing has been done to better manage environmental resources, including rainwater, to reflect this state of emergency.

Cacopardo added that a primary cause of road flooding is due to the fact that a substantial number of buildings do not have a well for rainwater storage but instead ends up directly in the roads or in the sewage system. "There are laws that are not being implemented. Even if we just consider rain water there has been a requirement for the past 141 years that each building should have a well for harvesting rainwater," he said.

He also said the Planning Authority should ensure that all buildings are meeting this obligation. "Before authorising new communications to the sewage system, the Water Services Corporation is also obliged to ensure that such connections only receive sewage and not rainwater."

"Public authorities such as the Planning Authority and the Water Services Corporation should carry out their duties as required by law. Only then will our roads fare better in storms such as the recent ones," Cacopardo concluded.

ADPD Deputy Chairperson Mark Zerafa said that this week Malta saw a repetition of major flooding in residential areas such as Msida that in a few minutes became a danger zone for all those who travelled through.

“In spite of multi-million-euro projects, many with the support of EU funding, to reduce such occurrences one of potential solutions has been overlooked – that of rainwater falling on roof tops being collected in wells beneath the same properties,” Zerafa stated.

He said that the amount of cars on the roads is unsustainable and argued that the infrastracutral road projects increase the dependency on private transport.