The Maltese word Sliema means peace and tranquillity.
Our school is located in the heart of Sliema. Over the past years, our journey towards school has always ended with a peaceful, picturesque ride by the Sliema coastline from where we could admire beautiful yachts rocking gently on the calm, azure waters.
The situation has, however, changed drastically over the past year. Our journey to school has indeed become an urban nightmare. This change has been mainly brought about by the extensive construction and road works being carried out. For instance, in most of the streets surrounding the school one will surely find a crane, a lorry or some other heavy vehicle blocking the street and carrying out building works.
The map below shows the streets in close proximity to our school. The red arrows indicate the places where construction or road works are being carried out (at the time of writing this report). The yellow circle pinpoints the location of our school. As can be seen, there are 9 separate construction sites in an area less than 1 km 2 surrounding our school.

These works lead to a variety of problems, namely:
1) Traffic Congestion – Heavy vehicles parked in the streets, or blocking the entry to main arterial roads, cause traffic havoc.
2) Potholes and broken pavements – Tarmac often gives way under the pressure created by the heavy vehicles, resulting in dangerous walking for pedestrians.
3) Lack of parking – Parking spaces have been greatly reduced due to either the closure of some streets or large spaces being reserved for construction vehicles.
4) Noise pollution – The at times incessant digging, drilling, hammering, and engine roaring can become very stressful on Sliema residents.
These have to put up with the noise throughout most of the daylight hours.
5) Air pollution – The stone works inevitably liberate a huge amount of dust into the atmosphere. A recent study carried out by our school for the NSTF Science Week on the pH values of rain water in Malta, has shown that the pH value of rain in Sliema is significantly higher than that of other localities.
Rain water was collected from 20 localities distributed in the northern, central and southern parts of Malta. The data we obtained showed that the average pH of rain water is 7.2, with most towns having rain water

pH of less than 7.5. Table 1 and Figure 1 show the mean pH value from
7 readings for the rain water collected from the different localities.
Table 1: Mean pH values of rain water collected from different localities in the Maltese Islands.
Locality Mean pH value of rain water
Locality Mean pH value of rain water
Attard
Birkirkara
6.68
7.37
Cottonera 7.61
Lija 7.23
Marsa 7.30
Marsascala 6.92
Paola
Rabat
Sliema
6.99
Pembroke 7.01
7.61
7.85 **
St. Julians 7.07
St. Paul’s 6.45
Bay
Mosta
Msida
Mtarfa
Naxxar
7.41
7.34
6.09
6.52
St. Venera 6.93
8.00 Swieqi
Xgħajra
Żejtun
7.82
7.53
** The pH value of rain water in Sliema is relatively quite high – a pH of
7.85, which is approximately 8. This value is second only to Swieqi, where extensive construction is also being carried out.

Graph 1: Mean values of rain water pH in different Maltese localities
After researching ‘Alkaline Rain’, we found that the major cause of alkaline rain is the presence of calcium carbonate dust in the air. When the dust contains enough calcium carbonate to counteract the natural acidity of rain, the pH of rain water is increased, resulting in a pH that will be either neutral or alkaline:
CaCO
3
(s) + H
2
O(l)

Ca(OH)
2
(aq) + CO
2
(g)
The basic nature of the calcium hydroxide formed after the reaction shown above affects the acidic nature of natural rain, thereby increasing its pH.
In conclusion, our results suggest that the presence of excess dust in the air of localities such as Sliema and Swieqi is contributing to alkalinisation of rain pH.

Studies have shown that air pollution is closely related to various health problems . While talking to the residents in one of the neighbouring streets we were also told that they have a problem with drainage flow – every few weeks they have to unblock their manholes. Could it be that the drainage system is not coping with the augmented flow coming from the increased number of houses being built? Furthermore, is the construction having any effect on the coastline and the marine life ?
We think that several factors need to be considered before the old, majestic, beautiful buildings in Sliema are indiscriminately pulled down to be replaced by high, imposing boxes of apartments. We propose that:
 Only a limited number of permits for construction should be approved at one time.
 There should be an increase in fees to be paid by cranes or heavy vehicles obstructing the roads. This will help speed up the works.
 There should be prompt resurfacing of roads to repair any damage.
 There could be incentives for people to enhance the appearance of their building façade by decorating with flower pots etc.
Don’t the Sliema residents deserve the peace and tranquillity that the name of their town promises?

Photos showing construction works in the vicinities of our school