Xghajra sewage treatment plant

I always read with interest the letters written by Xghajra's major Anthony Valvo.

As he rightly pointed out (Xghajra's Stand On Sewage Plant, November 20), Mr Valvo has been writing on the subject of sewage discharge at Wied Ghammieq for ages, but very little has been done in the past years to alleviate the problem.

According to EU regulations, member states cannot dump untreated sewage into the sea. During negotiations Malta obtained (unfortunately) a transition period until 2007 (MIC website).

Lately Investment and IT Minister Austin Gatt together with the Water Services Corporation chairman in a press conference announced that a Lm27 million plant is going to be built at Ta' Barkat (limits of Xghajra) and would be running by 2008.

This is good news for all residents of Kalkara, Xghajra and Marsascala (better late than never).

In the same press conference it was reported on The Sunday Times (October 22) that "the water in the south east of the island will be fit for swimming and fishing by 2008". To my knowledge, the Department of Public Health never issued warnings that the bathing water is unfit in the south east of the island.

What is correct to state is that no swimming is allowed at Wied Ghammieq. The quality of the bathing water is sampled weekly during the bathing season from the third week of May through the third week of October. Sites marked A01 and A02 at Xghajra have always conformed to the Barcelona Criteria as Class 2 and to the EU Criteria as Green (Bathing Water Report 2005, published by the Department of Public Health), and most probably the next report for 2006 will have the same results.

Although Class 2 and Green class are inferior to most other bathing areas in Malta that are classified as Class 1 and Blue (Barcelona Criteria and EU Criteria, respectively), the bathing water in Xghajra is fit for swimming. What the minister should have better said is that the water quality must certainly improve.

I am grateful to the Xghajra local council which is putting pressure on the authorities so that the sewage treatment plant will cause minimal disturbance to us residents of Xghajra.

Furthermore Xghajra council must be commended for looking into how the SmartCity project is going to affect our locality. While as a citizen I welcome such a big project that potentially could create thousands of jobs, it is wise to think of protecting the residents while this project is in its construction phase.

I urge the council to enter into a sort of memorandum of understanding with both SmartCity and the sewage treatment plant developers so that minimal inconvenience is caused to the neighbouring residents. One has to keep in mind the bad record that local contractors have when it comes to noise and dust emissions.