Posh Mellieha valley can’t take its own stink

The unbearable stench of sewage that is riling residents at the Santa Marija estate in Mellieha’s Zejtuna valley, has now become a fixture of the area: five months of inaction from the authorities which is turning into a health risk for residents.

The Santa Marija residents’ association’s chairman, Sammy Vella, is a former mayor of Mellieha and lectures in agro-science. He says the blame for the sewage leaks is down to planning policies, and that the leaks are threatening the valley’s ecosystem, home to the rare freshwater crab and painted frog.

MaltaToday confirmed reports from residents of the sewage trickling from a plastic pipe going down the Zejtuna valley and straight into the sea. It is an incredible stench, made worse by the still summer air.

The residents’ association reported the leak to the Mellieha council in April, which complaint was sent to the Environmental Health Directorate, which later held an on-site inspection.

But while the council was told that the Environmental Health Directorate would be contacting the property owners responsible and face them with legal steps if no action is taken, questions sent by MaltaToday over what steps were taken were still unanswered by the time of going to print.

“It is inexplicable and unacceptable that five months later, sewage is still flowing from the plastic pipe into the valley,” Sammy Vela said. “We have been denouncing these illegal plastic pipes since 2009, and MEPA itself issued an enforcement order against this illegality a year later.”

But Vella says he wants the authorities to really address the root of the problem.

“It can partly be solved if the property owners invest in communal cesspits, which can be periodically emptied into the main sewage system. Ultimately, the overall problem is caused by over-development,” Vella says.

He recounts that originally Santa Marija estate was planned as a garden estate where only fully detached bungalows, consisting of one habitable floor and one non-habitable basement, were allowed. 

“I objected to the original brief issued in the 1960s as I would have preferred the valley to remain undeveloped. But the brief also had benefits, because by stipulating that only 20% of the footprint of each bungalow site could be developed and that a minimum 30% had to be reserved for soft landscaping, it created an opportunity for afforestation,” Vella said.

This was changed when in 2005, MEPA introduced a so-called “relaxation clause” through which two semi-detached villas can be permitted on the same footprint previously occupied by a single bungalow, as long as the building looked like a single dwelling.

Moreover, MEPA was creative in interpreting this policy: it allowed multi-storey blocks which have one storey on one side, and an additional number of storeys on the other side thanks to the downward sloping terrain of the valley.

This policy resulted in an increase in density and more paved areas and roofing, and further increased the burden on the infrastructure, now resulting in sewage overflows. The paved areas themselves means that more rainwater is left uncollected, and ends up clogging the sewage infrastructure.

“The infrastructure has remained the same as before and it simply does not cater for the increase in population and building density,” Vella says.

The situation at Santa Marija estate was aggravated by a permit for the construction of a conglomeration of 12 bungalows straddling the watercourse of the valley, in so doing blocking the flow of storm-water and rendering it impossible for these houses to access the sewage network already in place.

Their solution to this predicament was to lay new unauthorised and illegal sewage and storm-water pipes along watercourse bed, which eventually triggered off repeated sewage leaks.

“The problem is that MEPA continues to issue permits in this area without taking in consideration the impact on the infrastructure, on traffic and parking dynamics, and on the character of the residential amenity. This goes directly against MEPA’s own Structure Plan…. We have been consistently pointing this out for the past years whenever we submit representations on individual applications in Santa Marija estate. ”

Vella welcomes the fact that MEPA intends to change its policy again, by re-designating Santa Marija Estate as a place reserved for fully detached bungalows, a proposal in the new Policy and Design Guidelines issued in 2014. The policy has yet to be approved.

But even this bit of positive news has had the undesirable consequence of an increase in applications by owners who want to exploit the relaxation clause before it is removed. “Unfortunately even when MEPA has good intentions, these are undermined by developers who are now racing to reach their goalposts before the new policy is in place.”