Water surcharge now affecting also middle-class families

Labour MP Michael Farrugia said it was easy for the government to cover rising water production costs by increasing the surcharge, but it was the families that suffered. It was no longer only families in need who complained about the water and electricity surcharge, but even middle-class families were now feeling the pressure.

Speaking during the debate on the Water Services Corporation estimates on Tuesday, Dr Farrugia said the government was duty bound to find a solution.

Although alternative energy sources had been in the pipeline for many years, Malta still had only a draft plan. Improvements in this area would ease the burden on families.

The sea around Malta, he said, should be free from contamination, but this was not always the case. Proper water tests would probably detect nitrates and other chemicals. In cases where water testing was carried out the approval rating was very often just borderline, and this needed looking into.

Works by the corporation and the sewage department, especially the resurfacing of dug-up roads, had to be carried out in timely manner and of acceptable quality. The expense of having a car was already heavy, and bad roads damaging people's cars made it worse. And when work took inordinately long there was also the risk of losing out on foreign financing.

On Monday, Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said said that 20 years ago doubts had been raised whether Malta would ever have the water supply it needed. But thanks to heavy investment in this sector by various Nationalist governments, sufficient good-quality water supplies were produced.

Dr Said said that as far as water losses were concerned, Gozo had long reached the acceptable 1.5 ILI benchmark. This was a great achievement, the more so because the average water loss for Gozo was 1.2 or 1.3 ILI. Gozo was an international model.

Leakage control management was giving results, as evidenced by the fact that the total production of water for Malta and Gozo had decreased by 2.5 per cent in the past year.

The quality of extracted water had improved due to cleaning of boreholes, and changing and regularly maintaining pumps. Boreholes in Gozo produced 6,000 cubic metres of water a day, which were then mixed with water from the Ċirkewwa reverse osmosis plant in Malta.

Another important accomplishment for the corporation was the setting up of an acid tank and an aerator. The tank did away with handling of acid and therefore reduced the risks for a number of workers. The aerator improved the alkalinity of water and therefore reduced the need of certain chemicals and, of course, more costs.

Distribution targets were also being reached. The corporation had carried out changing of mains and other works, both in water and drainage systems, between Mġarr and Xewkija and between Rabat and San Lawrenz in Gozo.

The building of the sewage treatment plant at Għajnsielem was one of the largest and most important projects in Gozo. The plant could treat up to 6,000 cubic metres of sewage a day and had been heavily funded by the EU. For the first time, the outfall problem in the bay at San Blas had been solved.

The corporation had also participated in a number of programmes, such as the Water Framework Five, which dealt with clear communications regarding use of water for agriculture, and the Sixth Framework, which included a dialogue on integrated water management.

Funds for a stormwater masterplan for Malta had also been allocated.

Opposition whip Joe Mizzi said that the problems the government was highlighting now had been known before the elections. But the government had swept them under the carpet because it knew that there had to be extra taxes or environmental rates for water, electricity and sewage services. It had remained silent.

As the price of oil was rising, the opposition had been on the forefront to advise the government to seek alternative energy sources. But the government had not done anything tangible. Even the technologies chosen were not economically viable or efficient. A classic example was the technology chosen for the Gozo plant and that in the north of Malta.

Mr Mizzi pointed out that both the WSC and the regulator had not answered questions whether the plants were working according to EU directives. It would be interesting to know where the sludge of these plants was being disposed of.

Despite government declarations, not all the plants were working properly, he said. The Malta plant had fallen so far back that not even its foundation stone had been laid.

He said that the problems were so similar to those of the last few years that if he repeated last year's speech, the government side would not even notice. The government did not heed criticism or take steps to rectify problems, because it was irresponsible and arrogant.

In the case of the WSC, year after year he had asked for key performance indicators. It was important that the operating and production costs were known to employees and consumers alike to see whether the corporation was working efficiently. Where was the transparency that the government spoke about?

It was a known secret that there were problems in the aquifer, but this was not reflected in the WSC report. Neither was corporate social responsibility.

The chairman admitted that the sewage department employees taken on by the corporation had experienced a culture shock. Mr Mizzi said that the shock they had experienced was not because of the work itself but because they could never understand how some of them were being discriminated against insofar as overtime and promotions were concerned. Some blue-eyed workers did not even report for work because they had guardian angels who shielded them. Some of these had also been promoted to managerial grades without qualifications or experience.

Turning to WSC equipment, Mr Mizzi said the CEO had admitted what the opposition had always maintained: it needed more funds to upgrade. Where would these funds come from? Since Malta had joined the EU millions of Euros had been lost as the corporation was never on the government's priority list.

As regards water conservation, the corporation had embarked on projects costing millions of liri, but stormwater from the Qormi-Marsa area was still being directed to the sea. The government did not have any plan for the storage of stormwater and the consumer was being lumped with higher water bills in the face of the rising oil prices.

Mr Mizzi said that the aquifer was so contaminated that while 25 years ago the problem had been salinity, today there were carcinogenic toxins. During the 1970s Malta had controlled the importation of a number of toxins to prevent damage to the aquifer, but this was no longer practised. The government did not even provide for seasonal fluctuations, another reason why the aquifer continued to be depleted.

For years the WSC had said that it was monitoring the quality of water according to EU directives and that it was taking steps so that certain toxins did not mix with the water. It was too good to be true that sample reports to the EU never exceeded acceptable nitrate levels.

He also accused the regulator of being passive because he did not take any action against those who were stealing water through illegal boreholes. The corporation itself had increased the extraction of water to offset reverse osmosis expenses.

The WSC was also being short-sighted when it decided to change only the damaged part of a pipeline instead of changing the whole pipe, which was in bad shape anyway. This was a waste of money.

Concluding, Mr Mizzi said the corporation was following wrong policies and taking wrong decisions for which its clients were paying. He said that the government had arrived at a stage of blaming everything on the rising price of oil. But what measures had the WSC taken to reduce the dependence on oil? Somebody must shoulder the political responsibility.

Nationalist MP Ċensu Galea said that despite the progress achieved by the corporation, there were still areas that lacked a fully-functional drainage system. Every effort must be made so that people living in such areas could start enjoying a better quality of life.

The minister had admitted that water leakages were still very high compared to the acceptable ILI levels. But greater efforts must be made so that water was not wasted. More than 25 per cent of the water reaching St Paul's Bay was not being accounted for. Water production was expensive and all wastage must be curbed.

Because many utilities fell under the aegis of one ministry, Dr Gatt was now in a better position to see that there was better coordination among the utilities. The WSC had continued with its policy of laying water mains in the middle of roads with the consequential damage of roads being dug up when repairs or new installations were needed.

Mr Galea said that in his time as a minister he had had quite a hard time convincing the utilities to pass all services in Mtarfa and industrial estates through one covered culvert on the pavement, even if this meant doubling the length of pipes and cables. But at least, when damage was reported it was only the slabs on the pavement that were removed and the road was not dug up.

The WSC report spoke of fewer leakages, but better results must be achieved. The replacement of mains was a step that would ensure more efficiency.

Turning to stormwater storage, Mr Galea said that although this was a step in the right direction, one must acknowledge that after the first or second rainfall, water reservoirs would overflow and water would still find its way into the sea. The most important thing was that the stormwater did not cause damage to property or crops. Because of the lack of stormwater management, the September rains three years ago had caused irreparable damage to the saltwater pans in Salini. The government would now have to repair them because these were listed buildings.

The corporation had reduced its workers by 300, but this did not mean large-scale redundancies. What it meant was that the corporation now had a leaner workforce and a reduced payroll. The money saved could well be applied to new projects.

Mr Galea referred to Mr Mizzi's remarks about illegal water extraction, and said the problem would be eased by the second-class water which would be produced by the sewage treatment plants. This water would be another source for farmers. But if distribution problems existed because of the costs involved, the farmers ought to be allowed to go and collect it themselves. This would be a big step forward.

Mr Galea said that the sewage situation in the Qawra and Buġibba area must be seen to. While investments in the infrastructure were important, sustainability in the use of water was the key word.