Flood Relief project

The national flood relief project was tackled between 2007 and 2013. They have spotted three places in Malta with the flooding problem and twelve different localities were included in this project to recover or reduce the problem. These are, Attard, Lija, Balzan, B'kara, Iklin, Msida, Marsa, Qormi, Zebbug, Gzira, Zabbar and Marsascala. (gov.mt, 2012)

The project is co-financed by cohesion fund of the EU with 85% and the remaining 15% by the Malta Government and the total allocated funds are of 42.9 million, excluding VAT. (gov.mt, 2012)

One controversy of the Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi said that although the project should reduce the impact of floods, the new system still would not solve the flooding problem all over the country. (TimesofMalta, 2015)

The project cost that will be taken by the European Union is of a €55 million, this should help ease the flooding in Birkirkara, Lija, Msida, Balzan, Attard, Iklin, Gzira, Marsascala, Zabbar, Zebbug, Qormi and Marsa. (TimesofMalta, 2015)

The minister said that the other areas that are not included in the project might mitigate a problem, since close to 17,000 people would vote positive and more than 213,000 vote indirectly. (TimesofMalta, 2015)

Only 4,500 properties would be benefiting from the damages of the flooding.

In September 2012, the Government has proposed an extensive project to cover these problems. The National Flood Relief Project was aiming to create channeling water more efficiently and reduce the flooding while in advance the water storage will increase. (In the reservoir this takes only around 10,000 cubic metres of water.)

The whole project to be done takes 16km in length and passes beneath both rural and urban zones. The whole project constitutes of 4 main sub-projects.

The Largest sub-project is of 11km tunnel, that start off from Naxxar and Attard, which then they merge in the outskirts Birkirkara before passing below Birkirkara Valley and Msida, finally it reaches to Ta' Xbiex Retention and the rain water will be drained through 82 across the road-gratings and will be  discharged back into the sea, while the rest will be pumped into the Gzira Reservoir for recycling. This reservoir which has a volume of 10,000 cubic metres, will also collect water that drains from Wied Ghollieq area. The result of all collected water is of 650,000 cubic metres, that potentially, annually it will be exploited as necessary. (Anon, n.d)

Another tunnel system that has been excavated from Zabbar to Marsascala, is systematized similar to the project at Ta Xbiex, once the rainwater will go through all the tunnel and arrives at the Marsascala Retention and discharge structure, the water will be pumped to a retention basin at Wied il-Ghajn for aquifer recharge and will be used for agriculture use. (Anon, n.d)

The last sub- project is different from the other three projects done. This project subdivides in two, one part that starts from Qormi to Marsa and the other that starts from Wied Baqqiegha and Wied il-Hesri(Zebbug), this project consists to generate the flooding and allows a better flowing of water. This water will then drain from the town and discharge directly into Wied Qirda. (Anon, n.d)

The projects that calm the flood flow better and will be restored in the reservoirs will then can be recycled and used as a second class water that will access in the flushing water of the hotels that have applied for the second class water, such like the Paradise Bay Hotel. (Staff Reporter, 2013)



References:

gov.mt, 2012. 'Rainwater flood relief project'. Available at: <https://mti.gov.mt/en/Pages/WASD/PROJECTS/Rainwater-Flood-Relief-Project.aspx> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

AI Engineering, 2007-2013. 'The National Flood Relief Project -Malta'. Available at: <http://www.aigmalta.eu/> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

TimesofMalta.com, 2015. 'work on national flood relief project concluded'. Available at: <http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20151231/local/work-on-national-flood-relief-project-concluded.597334> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

Staff Reporter, 2013. 'Second-Class water plans wins Business Bureau approval' Available at: <http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/business/business_news/26037/second-class-water-plans-wins-business-bureau-approval-20130412#.WH-SefkrKUk> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

Anon, n.d. 'Of Tunnels and Reservoirs: The National Flood Relief Project' Available at: <http://www.yremalta.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Of-Tunnels-and-Reservoirs.pdf> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]