An €85 million sewage treatment plant at Ta’ Barkat in Xgħajra is nearing completion and will lead to closure of the Wied Għammieq outfall by April, according to Water Service Corporation CEO, Marc Muscat.

If everything went according to plan, the plant, which was undergoing tests, would be switched to full load by next month and would process 80 per cent of the sewage produced on the island, he said.

The plant, spread over an area of 45,000 square metres, can process 50,000 cubic metres of sewage every day. The sewage treatment plant in the north of the island can process 7,000 cubic metres while the one in Gozo can process 4,000 cubic metres.

Speaking during Finance Minister Tonio Fenech’s tour of the plant yesterday, Mr Muscat said this was the third and final plant the corporation was building. Once completed all the sewage produced in Malta would be treated before being disposed of at sea.

One of the final phases which would be carried out, once the weather stabilised, was the laying of the kilometre-long pipe in a channel which had already been dug on the seabed.

Sewage passed through 15 kilometres of pipe work during the treatment process. The sludge ends up in a sealed chamber where biogas is extracted to produce 30 per cent of the electricity the plant needs to operate. This also amounts to nearly one per cent of the 20 per cent reduction in emissions that Malta needs to make by 2020.

The 34,000 tons of sludge will be landfilled.

Mr Fenech praised the corporation for the investment it was making to ensure the island not only adhered to the EU’s Urban Waste Directive but also ensure the quality of the bathing water remained of good quality.

Mr Muscat said the WSC had worked closely with Xgħajra residents and was in the process of setting up a joint committee with the local council to monitor smells and air quality around the plant.