Give resources to the Resources Authority, MP pleads

Labour MP Charles Buhagiar has urged the government to give the Malta Resources Authority the resources it needs to effectively carry out its tasks.

Among such tasks, he told Parliament, the MRA needed to be able to carry out its own efficiency audits rather than base itself on costings supplied by operators where requests were made to raise the consumer prices of products such as water and fuels.

Speaking during the debate on a Bill to amend the Malta Resources Authority Act, opening the way for the liberalisation of fuel imports and distribution, Mr Buhagiar said the determination of consumer prices was one of the most important functions of the MRA.

What was worrying was that, particularly when it came to Enemalta and the Water Services Corporation (WSC), these corporations' inefficiencies were factored into the costs. Had these corporations been more efficient, their prices would be more competitive. There was still a lot to be done, for example, to reduce the losses which these corporations made during distribution. The WSC had been making progress in this regard, but it was troubling how over the past year, distribution losses had gone up again.

Would the MRA be in a position to see that the corporations improved their efficiency, before considering any request for price increases?

Turning to fuel liberalisation, Mr Buhagiar said this was necessary in terms of EU membership, and the opposition was not against it. But some explanations were necessary. For example, Enemalta made losses from power generation and partly recovered them from the importation and sale of fuels. What would happen when fuel imports were liberalised?

This Bill also included provisions for stiffer fines to be imposed when regulations in the resources sector were violated, But would the Resources Authority be given the human resources and funds it needed to actually enforce the law?

Among the most recent serious incidents was the case where oil from a pump at a batching plant at Ta' Kandja had leaked into a water gallery, contaminating fresh water. Had the WSC not realised immediately what had happened this water would have found itself in people's taps, with disastrous consequences. The clean-up operation had cost thousands of liri yet the person who caused this incident was only given a miserly fine by the courts. He hoped the new fines would be a more effective deterrent.

Mr Buhagiar said water was a very important resource but the aquifer was being depleted. What was the MRA doing about this? With building development, water catchment areas were getting fewer.

Yet another problem was the mushrooming of illegal boreholes drawing millions of gallons of groundwater for use either by farmers, or commercial purposes.

How was the MRA tackling this problem, particularly with regard to illegal extraction for commercial purposes? Water bowsers could be seen driving around all over the place. Why not test samples of their water and investigate its source? It was worrying that the MRA, which was supposed to safeguard the country's resources, was ignoring water, which was the most important resource.

Yet another issue which the MRA needed to tackle was the reuse of treated affluent. Expensive sewage treatment plants were being built in Gozo, in the north and near Xaghjra. It was well known that 90 per cent of sewage was actually water which could be re-used, after treatment, in agriculture, for instance.

It was simply unsustainable to produce water by expensive reverse osmosis, then have it dumped in the sewage system, treated, and dumped into the sea! The problem was that there were not enough fields to take this treated water around Xghajra where more than 80 per cent of sewage would be treated. Clearly not enough thought had been given to the siting of the treatment plants because from a reuse point of view, the location of the biggest plant did not make sense.

Furthermore, the MRA needed to study was was being thrown into the sewage and drainage systems, notably by farms as well as by pharmaceutical firms. What effect would chemicals in waste-water have on the treatment process?

Mr Buhagiar said the opposition agreed on promoting the use of renewable sources of energy. But buses running on biodiesel were producing emissions which made one think he was in a kitchen.

Had the MRA gone into how much energy could be produced by the composting plant?

New technology produced energy through water currents. Could energy be produced fro the constant water discharge at Wied Ghammieq?

The Labour MP said another area of concern was how Malta was fast running out of good quality rock for the building industry. Had the MRA had ever studied Maltese rock formations before development was allowed in certain areas? Unfortunately some areas had been developed on top of good quality formations. The disappearance of good quality rock meant bricks were replacing the traditional, and characteristic, stone in new buildings.

Concluding, Mr Buhagiar again called for the Resources Authority to be given the resources to handle its important functions.

Nationalist MP Michael Asciak welcomed the advent of fuel liberalisation and insisted that Malta also needed to introduce a plurality of energy sources, particularly renewable sources to reduce dependence on hydrocarbons which were harmful to the environment and were fast running out.

Happily, there was now universal consensus about global warming and it was everybody's duty to do something about it. More countries were now realising the benefits of the Kyoto Protocol although some countries were still dragging their feet about this protocol or similar measures which could be taken. The problem was this could be too little, too late. Kyoto, after all, was conceived 15 years ago!

Dr Asciak said he was also concerned about air quality. Particulate matter had become smaller so that when it was inhaled, it entered the blood stream. Whereas up to some time ago particulate matter was inhaled and could cause problems in the lungs, it was now carried by blood and could cause problems anywhere in the body resulting in more serious medical problems. In Malta, as much as a fifth or a quarter of the population could be suffering from asthma and the number of cases with no family history was on the increase.

Dr Asciak said that although renewable sources of energy were regarded as expensive up to some time ago, the recent increase in oil prices had changed the equation and a break even point could soon be reached. Malta should be studying and investing in such sources, notably energy from the sun, the wind or the waves. He, however, acknowledged that wind farms took up a lot of land space, while setting up offshore wind farms was problematic because of the depth of the sea.

Producing energy from the sun appeared to be easier and recent government incentives to boost the use of solar water heaters were therefore welcome. So too was the rebate system announced in the budget for those who bought energy or water efficient white goods.

Linking up to the European grid was another option, since areas such as Sicily produced excess energy.

Labour MP Joe Mizzi criticised the government for having handed essential elements of the national infrastructure to 'friends of friends'.

He said the MRA had failed to effectively protect consumers by demanding action before the anticipated oil prices rises actually happened. It also failed to protect consumers' interests as the power surcharge was imposed. The six years since the authority was set up were years of silence.

The authority had failed to effectively regulate prices, draw up an energy plan for Malta and instill competition in a level playing field.

This inactivity was also evident in the oil exploration sector, with no exploratory oil drilling currently under way, Mr Mizzi said.

He is due to resume his speech on Monday.