Hundreds of families in the Swieqi-Ibraġ area have been deprived of their sleep for the last 15 nights or so while digging continues round the clock on a tunnel between Pembroke reverse osmosis plans and a reservoir at Ta' Qali, an election candidate has complained.

Arnold Cassola, now an independent, said on Tuesday that he had written to the Ombudsman to voice his complaint.

He said that the tunnel, being bored by the Water Services Corporation, is necessary to provide the whole of Malta with decent potable water.

But he asked whether the authorities could do something about the inconvenience at night.

"This is outrageous and unfair. It is getting louder and louder and has been going on for at least two weeks," he said.

He asked the Ombudsman whether he could stop the WSC from continuing the works at night, saying that night rest is a fundamental human right.

Works on the 9.5 kilometre, three-metre wide tunnel to carry water from the Pembroke reverse osmosis plant to the Ta’ Qali reservoir started in October and is expected to take 30 months to complete.

The €27.5 million project is being carried out by Bonnici Bros and Turkish company Superlit Boru Sanayi A.S.

Superlit Boru Sanayi will provide glass fibre reinforced plastic pipes to be laid inside the tunnel. One of the mains would be used to supply blended water to the central part of the island through a centralised hub feeding, mainly using gravity.

The water transferred from the Pembroke reverse osmosis will be mixed with groundwater at the Ta’ Qali reservoirs, sampled and then treated to ensure the best quality blend, the WSC had explained.

The tunnel will be between five and 70 metres below the ground surface.