Work starts to repair damaged salt pans

The Salini salt pans will not produce any salt this year because they were extensively damaged in last September's floods.

Joe Fenech, of Silka Ltd, which holds the lease on the salt pans, said that in addition to the damage, the storms swept away last year's harvest.

He said repairing the damage and restoring the salt pans to a state of production will take between two to three years.

"The first step is to thoroughly clean the pans," he said, explaining that a considerable amount of rubble had been swept into the salt pans.

Mr Fenech said that since no heavy machinery could be taken into the salt pans, all work had to be done manually.

Once the pans are cleaned, the damaged retaining walls will be repaired, he said.

The work to return the pans to their productive state has already started.

Mr Fenech said the Salini salt pans can produce between 600 and 1,000 tonnes of salt a year. The process takes place mainly in summer, because of the weather, although it starts in March and in some years can stretch on until October. He explained that the pans are prepared for the process in March or April when water is then channelled into the pans.

Through evaporation, salt crystals start forming and these are transferred from one pan to another according to the consistency of the crystals.