A new mobile water purification system will provide farmers with cleaner irrigation water that can be altered to better suit individual types of crops they plant.

The Mobile Polishing Plant forms part of a €22 million water conservation project which is being coordinated by the Water Services Corporation and partly funded by the European Regional Develop-ment Fund.

The conservation scheme, Project Morisio, is expected to be up and running within the next two years and will produce some seven million cubic metres of water annually.

Environmental Engineer David Sacco hopes the project will provide a functional solution to the country’s water problems.

“We’ve created a miniature Malta here, and we can fine tune the project to fit Malta’s needs,” Mr Sacco said referring to the Bulebel site where the project is being tried.

The car-sized purification unit runs “farming grade” water through a reverse osmosis system which filters the water to the specific needs of different crops. Mario Farrugia, a farmer who took part in the pilot project, said: “Different crops need different qualities of water to yield the best harvest. The results have been noticeable.”

The plant is mounted on wheels and runs on several photovoltaic panels. “We wanted it to make as little carbon impact as possible,” Mr Sacco said.

Speaking at a press conference about the results of the project’s pilot research, Energy and Water Conservation Minister Konrad Mizzi said, “Although they may not be apparent, our challenges are very real and doing nothing is not a solution. This project is a big step forward in meeting these challenges.”

The project also includes a micro sewage treatment facility which filters treated sewage water from the Sant Antnin Waste Treatment Plant for use in industry and agriculture.

The scaled down plant, the size of a two-car garage, filters up to 45 cubic metres of sewage a day and provides irrigation water to over 40 farmers in the fields surrounding the Bulebel site.

Dr Mizzi said the Water Services Corporation would be installing several plants in Gozo and the south of Malta by 2015.

Malta currently produces up to 600,000 cubic meters of sewage every day but while treatment plants prevent the sewage from being dumped into the sea, most of the treated water was previously not utilized.

The excess water produced by the new purification plants in the winter months will be stored in underground reservoirs to replenish the island’s highly prized ground water.

“Hopefully this will provide a realistic alternative to boreholes – our water table is a vital resource,” Dr Mizzi said.

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