Dilemma over use of water from sewage treatment plants

Opposition utilities spokesman Charles Buhagiar said in Parliament yesterday that the planned building of three sewage treatment plants should be accompanied by a plan for this considerable volume of second class water to be used rather than dumped into the sea since that would be sheer waste.

But Public Investments Minister Austin Gatt said in reply that the argument was purely financial. Treating sewage for disposal at sea would cost 17c per cubic metre of water but treatment to the standard of second class water for use for irrigation would cost 70c per cubic metre, excluding distribution costs. If that cost could not be recovered, it would be far cheaper to dispose of the treated sewage in the sea.

The comments were made during the debate on the financial estimates of the Water Services Corporation (WSC).

Mr Buhagiar at the beginning of his speech reacted to comments by Dr Gatt at the opening of the debate. He said the setting up, by the Labour government, of Malta Desalination Services to take over the operation of reverse osmosis plants from Polymetrics Inc. had yielded millions in savings.

Dr Gatt had criticised Labour for the purchase of a batch of spare parts which remained unused. Yet there had been nothing wrong with the purchase of those parts. What happened was that the Nationalist government replaced the pumps at the reverse osmosis plants. It was for this reason that the spare parts could not be used.

The government was now saying that MDS would be absorbed by the Water Services Corporation. He had no difficulty with this as long as no jobs were lost, Mr Buhagiar said. But no problems should be caused to the workers. If the government wanted the merger in order to save money spent on the workers, it should say so. Some of the workers at MDS were specialised on the reverse osmosis plants and could hardly be moved from that role. Indeed, these workers also did work on reverse osmosis plants for the private sector and they had designed the water polishing plant in Gozo. The government should ensure that this expertise was not lost.

Turning to sewage treatment plants, Mr Buhagiar said foreign funding for the first two treatment plants was bound by a deadline up to the end of next year. Would that deadline be met, or was Malta at risk of losing these funds?

Mr Buhagiar said he was reiterating his call for a storm water master plan. One needed not only to prevent storm water from flooding low-lying areas, but also see how this water could be used to recharge the aquifer.

The Labour MP said pipes used to supply water to households in the past few years had been of inferior quality and the pipes needed to be replaced, at considerable cost. Were these pipes still being used? Had action been taken against this supplier because of this inferior product?

Mr Buhagiar said many low income people who had applied for a special rebate as announced in the budget had still not been given the rebate and they were told there was no budget for them. This was not seriousness and belied social justice. Indeed, the corporation needed to be more compassionate with people who simply could not pay their bills for genuine reasons and did not have a history of abuse. It was unacceptable that the corporation was turning off water and power for these people, rendering their existence akin to that of the stone age.

Replying, Dr Gatt said the criteria established by the Social Services Department for those considered as being social cases and eligible for assistance. Such people did not pay the surcharge and paid low rates for water and electricity. In such cases, the service was not turned off when payments were not made on time. However, he did not agree that the government should also give special consideration to those who could not pay. If the social services criteria were changed that was a different point, but he did not agree with having subjective criteria.

On the quality of water pipes to households, Dr Gatt said quality control had increased substantially. The problem was not as widespread as Mr Buhagiar had made it out to be and when pipes were found to be of inferior quality, legal action was taken, as was the case already in some cases.

Turning to MDS, Dr Gatt agreed that there was a bright future in this area and some of the employees had "cutting edge" expertise. But, in view of technological progress, MDS no longer needed the number of people it had. MDS would therefore be integrated with the Water Services Corporation and surplus workers, mostly labourers, would start to work with WSC.

As for the spare parts ordered for the reverse osmosis plants, the version of events he was given was very different from that described by Mr Buhagiar. The parts were not obsolete, only a few referred to the pumps and Lm1m were spent on spares for non-moving plants which hardly ever needed to be replaced.

On sewage treatment, Dr Gatt said the first two sewage treatment plants should be ready at the end of 2006 and they would come on stream in 2007. In this way, deadlines for foreign funding would not be affected. The building of the third plant, at Wied Ghollieqa, was not linked to foreign funding. The financial model based on the Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer concept should be completed by next June. The contract would probably be awarded in March 2007 but he did not see the plant operational before 2009 or 2010.

Earlier in the debate yesterday, Frederick Azzopardi (PN) said an integrated development programme being implemented by the WSC in Gozo was nearing completion. That programme had included the setting up of a polishing plant in order to raise water quality standards. A Lm3.2 million sewage treatment plant in Gozo was expected to become operational in 2007, ending harmful outflows of untreated sewage into the sea. This would be a historical development for Gozo. Thanks to this project, the rehabilitation of Wied Mielah had now started.

Gozo was also seeing substantial investment in the sewerage infrastructure.

The corporation was also planning to set up other treatment plants at Ic-Cumnija near Mellieha and a much larger one at Wied Ghammieq funded through private sources.

Mr Azzopardi praised the corporation for the effectiveness of its leakage detection programme and for having reduced its water production costs. In Gozo, leakage control had already reached the desired levels, he observed.

Labour MP Marie Louise Coleiro underlined the social role of the Water Services Corporation. She agreed that the billing system needed to be changed. The current format of bills was confusing to some people and there were instances when consumers ended up over-paying, without receiving interest.

Ms Coleiro said the water and electricity surcharge had caused hardship to many low income people. With plans for the surcharge to continue rising, what was to become of families who were on minimum wage, one parent families, and households with extended families where the number of residents was higher than indicated in the bills? Unfortunately, when people moved residence, they were being charged as much as Lm250 to transfer their meter account.

Ms Coleiro urged the corporation to introduce easier payment terms for people who had serious financial difficulties and could not keep up with their bills.

Nationalist MP Joe Falzon praised the WSC for having reduced the volume of electricity used for water production and for having cut down on network leakages.

Furthermore, between August 2004 and July this year, 47,000 chemical and biological tests were carried out. These ensured good water quality and enabled the early detention of potential risks.

The corporation was now also about to start building the new sewage treatment plants. Half of the cost of the plant in Gozo would be met by the EU. The plant at Ic-Cumnija was to be funded under the Italian financial protocol while funding for the largest plant in the south of Malta would be through a form of public-private partnership.

Mr Falzon said the people should be encouraged to make greater use of second-class water. One should also explore the possibility of having large reservoirs built under large projects for the storage of storm water.

Silvio Parnis (MLP) paid tribute to the WSC employees, some of whom worked in a very difficult environment.

Like Mr Falzon, he called for measures so that storm water could be stored and used. Although it was costly to build new wells, it was unfortunate that many old wells were blocked and unused. The culture of having wells should be revived. The people should be made to realise that water cost a lot of money.

It was unfortunate, Mr Parnis said, that water rates were not subsidised for a certain class of people, such as those with a pension of Lm130 a month. There were a lot of anomalies in the country and social justice was lacking. He also complained that sometimes road resurfacing works by local councils were delayed because the WSC took long to replace underground mains.

Evarist Bartolo, opposition spokesman for tourism, said Malta was late in treating sewage that was disposed of at sea. At last, three sewage treatment plants were now being built and they would contribute to cleaner seas. At the same time, however, the government should also move fish farms further out at sea because they, too, were polluting coastal waters.

Mr Bartolo said that communities which were still using cesspits should be given a timeframe when a connection with the sewerage system would be made. Among them were residents at Qortin and Bahrija. Indeed, it was about time that the whole of Hal Far Industrial Estate was linked to an appropriate sewerage system since this shortcoming could hinder investment, particularly by pharmaceutical firms. This work was meant to have been made in 2003.

On Malta Desalination Services, Mr Bartolo said the minister should say exactly what was planned for this company, which was a subsidiary of the WSC, because it had given good results. It also operated in the private sector and was involved in a project in Egypt. One should reflect if it was wise for this section to be absorbed by the WSC. This section had very good potential for business growth beyond Malta's shores, making the best of Malta's knowhow in seawater desalination. This potential needed to be exploited rather than lost.

Concluding, Mr Bartolo complained of poor customer care by the WSC. He had been among those who had written to question a bill, but not received neither reply nor acknowledgement.

Noel Farrugia, opposition spokesman on agriculture also underlined the need to save storm water. He insisted that road building projects should include provision to stop soil erosion. Valleys also needed to be cared for to stop a process of desertification, with soil being carried by water into the sea with precious flora and fauna being destroyed.

Furthermore, ground water quality was being harmed because of excessive and unlawful extraction by illegal boreholes. If Malta wanted sustainable rural development and if it wanted to preserve its countryside, rain water should be harnessed and not be allowed to destroy the country's natural heritage.

Turning to tap water quality, Mr Farrugia said many Maltese people still preferred to drink bottled water and did not trust tap water. The government needed to ensure that tap water was of uniform high quality if public confidence was to be improved.

In his winding up, Dr Gatt referred to the points on the sewerage system mentioned by Mr Bartolo. With regard to Hal Far industrial estate, Mepa issued a permit a month ago. The tender had actually been awarded three years ago but the contractor could not work on the basis of costings made three years ago. The situation was being tackled.

At Qortin the problem was financial in view of the costs involved to extend the network to just 21 households. As for Bahrija, three options were being considered - setting up a small treatment plant there, expanding the cesspits or connecting the cesspit to the sewer system. A decision was expected shortly.

Replying to Mr Mizzi's comments on Monday regarding water quality, the minister said he was repeating an invitation he made to Mr Mizzi last year to nominate his experts to go to the WSC laboratory and check results of the scientific tests. It was true that there were problems in some small areas, but big improvements had been made. That people still said that water was not good for drinking stemmed from the taste of chlorine, which could never be removed. Indeed, it would be cheaper for the WSC to give each person a litre bottle of water a day than invest all the money it was investing to improve water quality.

Turning to the surcharge on water and electricity, Dr Gatt insisted that the government had given top consideration to social issues. In view of the new surcharge, costs for 30,000 account holders, mainly garages and holiday flats, was to go up by a maximum of just 6c, that of 38,000 accounts was to go up by a maximum of Lm15; 20,000 accounts were to pay an additional Lm16 to Lm31;, another 20,000 account holders would pay between Lm32 and Lm47 more and 17,000 account holders were to see their bills increasing by between Lm48 and Lm63.

It was not true, as Mr Mizzi had claimed, that workings by the opposition had not been disputed. He had already tabled figures which contradicted what the opposition said.

Dr Gatt said that had the Labour government tariffs of 1998 been kept, the people would have since paid an additional Lm89 million in nominal terms, and Lm126 million in real terms. This was what the Nationalist government had saved the people.

The current tariffs were, in real terms, lower than those of the Labour government and in nominal terms were higher only in some instances, Dr Gatt concluded.

The estimates were later approved after a division.