[Nathalie Falzon]

Qormi is pretty much a very local’s town and an area within the main urban community in central Malta. Qormi is surrounded by the island’s main routes and thus this makes it a very busy location for traffic, especially during peak hours of the day, morning and afternoon. However, in view of the increasing number of cars and population on the island over the past few years, traffic has become quite a norm in Qormi.

The increasing number of establishments, supermarkets and shopping centres is resulting in traffic jams around these areas. Even though these are equipped with sufficient parking bays, getting to them is quite challenging.
Unfortunately we have become a very lazy population and I believe that half of the problem relating to traffic is being caused by ourselves. I do believe that we have good bus transportation in Malta. The car congestions however prevents buses to keep to their schedules and thus this has repercussions on its reliability.

A project which in my opinion was a necessity in Qormi was the stormwater culvert in the area known in Qormi as “il Wied’ (the Valley). Qormi residents had to face serious challenges whenever it rained heavily, some having suffered severe consequences when the water that was retained in the locality had entered their homes. Through the planting of trees and plants, a new space was created to provide shade for the number of benches installed. Thus il-Wied has now become very accessible (especially when it rains) as where before this area was always avoided and thus creating congestions on other main road in town.

There are still aspects of Qormi that make it look as an old village still especially on Sundays where I do believe its the slowest Qormi can go these days. The markets open during the weekends, the many bakeries found in almost every corner in the village. The two massive parishes that are fascinating with their attractive buildings.

There are recreational spaces as well for kids and teens which have been resurfaced over the years but which unfortunately at times are being neglected. As such if there is better planning in maintaining these spaces, this will encourage Qormi residents to stay local and not having to go to other town thus using their vehicles for movement.

A good initiative that can be implemented by Local Councils and government is to involve the locals to participate more in the activities organised in Qormi. This might also help in encouraging youths and newly weds not to leave Qormi and thus leaving the population as local as possible.

[Tutor]

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