‘Sliema infrastructural issues not being addressed from an engineering perspective’

Infrastructural problems in Sliema and Gzira, such as water supply, drainage and electricity, are not being addressed from an engineering perspective, former Feltom chairman Julian Cassar Torregiani said in comments to The Malta Independent.

His comments were made following a disruption to the main water supply of Sliema and Gzira for roughly 48 hours after a pipe had burst. Sliema’s infrastructure and public services has serious issues with its population continuously increasing as well as ongoing development.

Mr Cassar Torregiani, who runs a language school on Manuel Dimech Street, Sliema, remarked on a lack of infrastructural decisions taken from an engineering perspective. Decisions taken from an engineering perspective take into consideration the carrying capacity of the area, and therefore the technical requirements.

He referred to a situation where if you have a residential block of apartments, with say five apartments, Enemalta will supply the block with five electricity metres and five separate five supply units. If the block is sold off to a commercial entity, Enemalta then only provides one supply and one electricity metre, meaning that a business has to run on the electricity supply that would have been provided for a single apartment block.

One can get around this by giving up a section of your property to Enemalta, who would set up a sub-station and this will become part of the national supply. Mr Cassar Torregiani explained that not everybody can do this from a space perspective.

Going back to the issue which sparked comments, where residents and businesses of Sliema and Gzira were left without water, Mr Cassar Torregiani explained that at the very least authorities should advise residents and businesses beforehand so that they can make their own necessary arrangements.

“The water supply has just been returned from what I can see. We were left without water for about 48 hours and it is a bit awkward to run an operation without water. You get negative feedback all the time because you don’t get a heads up when they are cutting the water supply so you cannot prepare. You find out about the situation when the water actually runs out and you suddenly take stock of the situation. When you have 300 people in a building you obviously have lots of toilets in use, plus a cafeteria operation that relies on water. You don’t expect to end up in this situation in 2017. People take water and electricity for granted and obviously they start complaining on the most fundamental of services.”

Mr Cassar Torreggiani said one has to rely on private contractors to supply water in bowsers. “Apparently the water services were offering a free bowser service but that obviously means more time. Although free water is always attractive you cannot wait forever till it gets on your doorstep so you need private bowsers.”

He explained that, in view of the current situation, businesses in the area need to have their own generators and back up facilities. Mr Cassar Torregiani also confirmed that the government has not made contact with the business community in Sliema in order to address the situation.

Although conceding that there were efforts to address the situation in the past, he said there needs to be a major rethink on how decisions are made now. He stressed that Sliema is still functioning on the same infrastructure left by the British.

We were left without water for about 48 hours and it is a bit awkward to run an operation without water. You get negative feedback all the time because you don’t get a heads up when they are cutting the water supply so you cannot prepare.