The waste treatment plant currently being built at  Maghtab will be commissioned at the beginning of 2016 as planned, Environment Minister Leo Brincat said.

He said the €60m mechanical and biological treatmen tplant will be by far the biggest treatment plant in Malta, handling  66,000 tons of domestic waste, 47,000 tons of commercial waste and 39,000 tons of manure every year. No treatment of manure had taken place so far. Manure will be converted to compost and biogas, in turn producing nine gigawatts of electricity per year, enough to power 2,000 houses. The power will be fed to the grid.

Malta generates 240,000 tones of waste a year of which 200,000 tons in mixed and bulky waste.  The Sant Antnin plant handles a third of that. The new plant will handle all the rest.

Tonio Montebello, CEO of Wasteserv, said that with the old Maghtab landfill closed, waste which did not go to Sant Antnin went  to Ghallis landfill, which would be full in five years' time. But with the opening of the new plant, its life would be extended.

Mr Brincat  said odour mitigation measures were being taken to alleviate smells in the Maghtab area.

The EU is contributing €43m of the funding for the new plant.

Those present for the press conference included former Nationalist minister Jesmond Mugliett, a consultant architect.