Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said yesterday financial stability and operational effectiveness prevailed at the Water Services Corporation, leaving a positive financial balance for the third year running.

Winding up the debate on the motion for the House to approve the WSC’s financial estimates, Dr Mizzi said the government intended launching a national water management plan after public consultation.

He praised the employees for reducing the accidental loss of water and announced that, over the next few months, two polishing plants at Ta’ Barkat would start running.

The plants, used to purify drainage water for irrigation, were built through EU funds. This would help the water table to recharge, adding the government had no plan to bill ground water extraction.

New water was more economically viable and a distribution network would be extended to Binġemma. Discussions with farmers on the system had already been carried out. Similarly, crop trials were carried out using new water and those irrigated traditionally.

Referring to smart meters, Dr Mizzi said the exercise was almost concluded in Gozo. The major contribution was the lowest-ever water loss registered.

Energy shadow minister Marthese Portelli said the government should appoint a task force for a national water management plan to be drawn up in full consultation with and with the support of civil society. The WSC needed to be on the forefront of education as to the importance, cost and use of water.

Referring to appointments and deployment of staff in ARMS and the WSC, Dr Portelli said questions on matters pertaining to these entities remained unanswered.

Turning to the WSC estimates, she queried why the government had been silent on the use of EU funds for the forthcoming years.

Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg said that, over the past 30 months, the WSC had embarked on various projects having a total value of €27 million, availing itself of EU funds to invest in an improved infrastructure for better conservation and distribution of this resource.

The focus had been on the distribution of water and sewerage to guarantee consumers benefited from a better service, with less energy wasted.

With the cooperation of Transport Malta, a €12 million project was underway with the aim of better water distribution from Ta’ Qali to Sliema. A similar project was underway in Gozo, starting from Qala.

Another project undertaken by the WSC was a €10 million investment in the Pembroke infrastructure, which would improve the quality of water for all homes in the area.

A most ambitious project, due to its tight time frames, would see some €5 million going towards connecting the rural village of Baħrija to the sewage system. There was also consultations on what could be done in the area around the Nigret roundabout.

Dr Borg said there were ambitious plans for the water table, which the government was fully committed to safeguard. In the coming weeks it would also conclude another project on second class water.

Nationalist MP Charlo Bonnici quoted at length from the report by the Today Public Policy Institute, entitled ‘Why Malta’s national water plan requires an analytical policy framework’. The report spoke of the threat the water table was facing as well as being endangered by salt and nitrate levels.

Malta’s dependence on imported water stood at about 92 per cent. The whole issue could not be addressed if one did not solve the issue of water for agricultural purposes.

Ċensu Galea (PN) criticised the fact that MPs were presented with only a two-page financial report without any details.

He said the most important investment was to solve the problem of leakages although this situation had improved. Fault repairs needed to be done faster.

He said he did not agree with the statistics that the agricultural industry consumed as much water as households. He pointed out there were farmers who only pumped water once a week for their crops.

When it came to drainage works, one needed to think in the long term.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.