Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545722
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 JULY 2026 NEWS In Swieqi: 'Should I grab a rifle Swieqi residents are frustrated with the problems caused by short-stay tourists and angry because no one in authority NADIA wakes up at around 8am on Sunday to find urine on her front door, a man passed out on the pavement, and vomit just a few metres away. She grabs the mop, cleans up the mess, steps back inside, and makes her coffee. For some Swieqi residents, this has become an ordinary morning routine in a once-quiet locality now at war with rats, vandalism, drunken tourists, and developers cashing in on short-let accommo- dation. Nadia has also woken up to find that someone had defecated in her garden overnight, and she's not the only one. George, another Swieqi resident, says he regularly finds urine, shit, or vomit on his doorstep in the morning. And sometimes, the morning surprise is not the mess, but people getting busy outside residents' homes. "I've never seen it myself, but I know it happens," Sarah said. And she's completely right. Last Saturday, MaltaToday received a video of a man masturbating in a car outside a Swieqi home, un- deterred by the CCTV cameras pointed in his direction. This has been going on for at least 10 years, and every resident will tell you the same thing—it is only getting worse. "How are you doing, Noel?" I asked as we walk into his of- fice at the Swieqi local coun- cil. Noel Muscat is the locality's long-standing mayor and he is as frustrated and angry as the people he represents. "Wondering what the hell I'm still doing," he replies. I meet Muscat to discuss the problems facing Swieqi and he immediately hands me a report written by the council in 2016 and which was handed to then Tour- ism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis. The report appears to foreshad- ow many of the issues the locality is facing today, including cleanli- ness, the regulation of apartment block administrators, and the need for MTA licences for short-let ac- commodation. And yet, nearly a decade after Muscat began chas- ing ministers for help, those pleas have yet to be answered. A problem foretold Residents feel unheard by the council, and the council feels unheard by the government. Meanwhile, the situation keeps snowballing into what George succinctly calls "hell on earth." "My family thought we were moving into a peaceful neighbour- hood. That was our plan," George tells me over the phone. "At the time, ERA used to joke that even the garbage smells good in Swie- qi." Today, residents say up to 50 black bags of garbage can pile up outside massive apartment blocks used for short-let accommoda- tion. While the buildings have cleaners, residents say waste is often taken out on the wrong day, while renters rarely separate it properly. The law states that commercial buildings, including short-lets, are required to hire their own private contractors for garbage collection. However, none of them seem to do this, and no one with the power to stop them seems to care. The mayor tells me the council had already realised garbage col- lection was becoming a problem back in 2016. A decade has gone by, and no help, or even an an- swer, has arrived. Now, Muscat says, Swieqi finds itself in a crisis that only gets worse in the sum- mer months. Short-lets are extremely popular in Swieqi since it finds itself only a 15-minute walk from Paceville, attracting a certain type of tourist attracted to Malta's party reputa- tion. "I can take you to buildings which are hardly finished and still covered in dust from the con- struction. People will already be inside them," the mayor says, ex- plaining that these apartments are rarely empty for more than a day. Since renters are constantly rotating, cleaners take out the garbage whenever they clean an apartment, which as Muscat notes, is almost every day. Some- times cleaners take out the gar- bage just hours after it was sup- posed to be collected, leaving it to melt for another week in the sun. Shit's Creek George mockingly describes this as "a rat, tourist, cockroach, and short-let infestation." The rotting garbage is a paradise for rats. On Facebook, some res- idents have dubbed their neigh- bourhood 'Shit's Creek.' So, what do residents do in this situation? Sarah decided to take matters in- to her own hands and contact the landlords directly. "They tell me they can do what- ever they want on private proper- ty. Then, they block me," she says. "I'm blocked by three apartment managers because I asked them politely to clean up their garbage." Ironically, just minutes before we speak on the phone, Sarah tells me she was shoved by a construction worker after asking him to pick up the garbage he had left on the side of the road. As a tender goodbye, he told her to go "fuck herself". It's safe to say, the DIY tactic failed. Sarah says these incidents hap- pen over and over again in the exact same locations. Every resi- dent MaltaToday speaks to points to one site in particular—a large apartment complex owned by Bilom, Swieqi's favourite neigh- bourhood developer, which they believe is being used largely for short-let accommodation. And yet, somehow, it seems to me that garbage is the least of Swieqi's problems. Balcony parties The tourists and students stay- ing in these apartments are often in Malta for a week-long bender. And where better to party than an unregulated apartment block next to Paceville, with no hotel staff, no reception desk, and no one re- sponsible when the party goes too far? According to residents, entire blocks host balcony parties, with some renters even jumping from EVA BRANNON ebrannon@mediatoday.com.mt "They tell me they can do whatever they want on private property. Then, they block me," she says. "I'm blocked by three apartment managers because I asked them politely to clean up their garbage" Photos show rubbish, and vandalism across Swieqi Swieqi Mayor Noel Muscat