Sea of sewage in Mellieħa

The €10.7 million plant sewage treatment plant at Iċ-Ċumnija in Mellieħa is discharging murky effluent into the sea.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority said it had asked the Water Services Corporation for an explanation from the operators of the Mellieħa sewage treatment plant "on the discharged sewage", after it was prompted by a photo taken by The Sunday Times.

According to sources, the photo taken last Sunday showed the discharge was not treated effluent but raw sewage and/or activated sludge that was being pumped into the sea.

In an effort to learn whether the operators, Polidano Group and IBI Idrobioimpianti S.P.A, will be held accountable, The Sunday Times contacted the Infrastructure Ministry. The response laid the blame entirely on the farmers working the fields around the plant.

"Farms in the surrounding area continue to flout the law and dump solid waste in the sewage system. The sewage treatment plant is designed to treat normal flows of sewage but it is overwhelmed by illegal dumping. We have reported the matter to the competent authorities for appropriate action," a spokesman for the ministry said. The "competent" authority is the Malta Resources Authority. A spokesman said when contacted: "Together with other competent authorities, we are evaluating the report we received from the Water Services Corporation."

The discharged sewage is only the latest in a series of problems attributed to the plant, described by the Infrastructure Ministry as "a milestone towards a better environment in our country".

A few days after it started operations, the boreholes and wells in the vicinity had to be shut down after farmers reported pumping sewage from the water table. The WSC later confirmed that the sewage going to the treatment plant had found its way to the underground water table.

The Mellieħa plant should cater for the waste generated by about 30,000 people in the north.

It is the second sewage treatment to be built after the one in Gozo. The third and largest sewage treatment plant at Ta' Barkat in Żabbar, bordering Xgħajra, is not yet complete.

The three plants should have been in operation by 2007 according to EU-imposed deadlines.

They were funded by the EU and subject to penalties due to delays.