Earlier this year the Water Services Corporation (WSC) marked its tenth anniversary. There may be no better indicator of how far the WSC has come since it took over the responsibility for the production and distribution of water from the Water Works Department than the fact that everybody nowadays takes a regular supply of water when opening the tap for granted.
Gone are the days of water shortages. Believe it or not, the corporation now actually produces less water than it did ten years ago: 35 million cubic metres in 2000/1 compared to 45 million in 1991/2. This is not because demand has fallen, but because the corporation has over the past six years put considerable effort into reducing the amount of water lost through leakages in the distribution system. This used to amount to almost two-thirds of the water produced.
The figures speak for themselves: 2,800 cubic metres per hour were being lost in 1995. In 2001 the figure was down to 1,210. The target is to bring it down to a leakage rate of a mere 300 cubic metres per hour by 2010. Leakages from connections have also been tackled and a recently set up reporting system for consumers received 13,260 calls in one year alone.
The number of water cuts lasting over 24 hours have dwindled to a handful every year - just 13 last year. Two of these were due to a power failure, and five were necessary because of leakage detection work.
Another figure which speaks for itself is the provision of emergency supplies. Although water in tankers is still provided in emergencies, only 1,137 bowser trips were made last year.
The corporation has 2,000 km of mains and another 1,400 km of service connections and is also working to replace old iron pipes with more durable ones made of plastic. Over 78 km of new pipes were laid or renewed last year.
An important part of WSC`s water management strategy was that of interconnecting the various reservoirs. Construction started last year on three such mains, but the pipe renewal project is now at an advanced stage, a relief for the corporation, which has been well aware of the inconveniences caused by this work, necessary though this was.
Since 1995, it has installed 15,000 service connections a year. Most of this work was carried out by subcontractors. This service was plagued by problems in the past and although there has been some improvement, the corporation has set up a task force to study the whole process and come up with recommendations for improvement, especially as some of the corporation`s own workforce could be redirected into this activity.
Water production requires a lot of energy as half of the water is obtained by desalination, an energy intensive process. The corporation is continuously looking at ways to reduce its energy consumption. The reverse osmosis plants at Lapsi, Cirkewwa and Pembroke use about 100 million units of electricity a year. This makes Malta Desalination Services, set up in 1997 to operate the desalination plants, one of the largest single consumers in Malta, taking up 5.68 per cent of national energy demand in 2000/2001.
Since 1997 average energy consumption has dropped from 7.22 kilowatts per hour for each cubic metre of water produced to 6.24, representing 2.16 million units saved in one year alone. This is no mean feat but the corporation is not resting on its laurels.
Within weeks, six trains, part of the water production equipment, at the Pembroke RO plant will have been switched to Pelton-type turbines which are much more efficient. This change alone is expected to reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent. Other equipment is being considered for the Lapsi and Cirkewwa plants which will reduce consumption there by 20 and 12 per cent respectively.
One of the most important achievements of the corporation may not, however, be immediately apparent. Water quality is vital and is carefully monitored. One of the greatest headaches is high nitrate levels, that are apparent in groundwater as opposed to desalinated water. Much of this comes from fertilisers, which work their way down into the water table.
The WSC has managed to reduce nitrate levels by blending groundwater with desalinated water to dilute the concentration. Now only ten per cent of consumers get water with nitrates above the very stringent EU parameters. The EU targets will be reached for all consumers by the end of the year.
A new reverse osmosis plant is also being considered for Gozo, where groundwater is sufficient to meet demand, but is deteriorating in quality.
Other plants are planned in Malta to remove chemicals such as sodium and chlorides, which although not a health hazard, do affect taste. In addition, tests showed that 93.75 per cent of the water from taps complies with bacteriological levels for safe drinking, a figure which actually errs on the safe side.
Once the corporation was no longer dealing with crises in production and distribution, it was able to seek ways to improve other aspects of its operations.
A customer care office has been opened which allows customers to pay their bills, make inquiries about billing, and apply for new services, in a well-appointed environment, which is a far cry from the characterless, drab offices associated with the past. But it is far more than that: it is also a clear sign of how the customer has been put first and foremost in the corporation`s outlook.
Of course, providing a better service at the customer end would be pointless unless you have the product in the first place and can get it to him at the right price. This has been the main focus of the corporation since it was set up, and the success has been nothing short of phenomenal.
To continue improving its services the corporation has just gone through a restructuring programme. Business units were set up within the WSC and IT developments helped to improve accounting and billing.
The Institute of Water Technology is rapidly gaining international recognition for its training courses and research and development work.
Malta Desalination Services, a fully owned subsidiary of the WSC, is looking further afield and is manufacturing, installing and commissioning small to medium-sized reverse osmosis plants for private companies. It is now aggressively marketing its product overseas.
The challenge ahead is to make the entire operation yet more user-friendly. E-commerce is being developed so that all services, including the payment of bills, would become possible via the Internet.
Another innovation is offsite meter reading. This utilises special hand-held terminals which can capture consumption data from meters which have a small transmitting device attached to them, making it possible for the meter reader to gather information even from premises which are normally found closed.
This system is ideal for residences, garages or even businesses that are not in regular use, or for people who find it difficult to be present when a meter reader calls. Bills based on estimated consumption represent some of the most queried, and this new system will go a long way towards reducing the time wasted for both the customer and the corporation.
The WSC is also planning to introduce ways to help consumers calculate their own consumption, as over 40,000 customers contacted the corporation to query their bills. The amount of actual billing errors was only 3,491 or just 0.4 per cent of the 800,000 bills sent annually, showing that customers tend to underestimate their usage. By making it easier for the customer to work out how much water and electricity they are actually using, based on the number of people in the household, the corporation hopes to reduce the number of person queuing to query their bills.
Bills are now being issued much more promptly, and are also being settled faster. Although there is a stubborn section of bills which are not being paid within 30 weeks of their issue, the majority of bills are paid between five and 14 weeks of posting.
The corporation looks forward to the next 10 years, satisfied but not complacent, that it now produces enough water, of a satisfactory level, that it gets it to the consumer efficiently and in an environmentally-friendly way, and that its billing is user-friendly.