Enemalta Corporation has started the controversial process of installing smart meters at Armier’s illegal boathouses, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.
Its technicians are also installing meters at those boathouses which previously had no electricity supply but had applied for a temporary meter after the government allowed owners to regularise their position.
The move came following a clampdown on electricity theft in November, when Enemalta officials identified over 100 cases of suspected irregularities.
When contacted yesterday, a spokesman for Enemalta confirmed that smart meters were being installed at the boathouses.
“Enemalta is in the process of replacing the remaining old electricity meters with new smart meters as part of a project to introduce an automated meter management system. It is Enemalta’s intention to replace all old meters in Malta and Gozo with new smart meters,” the spokesman said.
It is Enemalta’s intention to replace all old meters in Malta and Gozo with new smart meters
The decision to supply the illegal boathouses with smart meters had angered the law-abiding public when Times of Malta broke the story last August, with many saying it was creating a “dangerous precedent” that was “rewarding” illegalities.
Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola had said that the move confirmed that “there is absolutely no political will to clamp down on illegalities”.
The issue involving boathouses at the illegal shanty town has been a political hot potato for years.
Ever since a botched attempt by the government to demolish the illegal structures in 1991, boathouse owners reached various secret agreements with both political parties on ways to regularise their position.
There are around 800 boathouses in Armier and it is believed only about 25 per cent of them actually have an electricity meter. The rest, according to sources, either connect to their neighbours’ supply or else simply connect illegally to the government’s supply through street lights and other points. The same goes for the water supply.