Proposed new power station will not prevent blackouts. Artist’s impression

Not only would water run out after two days but sewage would overflow too in case of a prolonged power outage, according to the Water Services Corporation.

A spokesman told Times of Malta the island’s water production was highly dependent on electricity as was the sewage system, which could result in widespread problems in case of a prolonged power shortage.

“The WSC runs on electricity. Without it we would quickly run out of water and also have serious problems with managing our sewage system. It wouldn’t be nice, that’s for sure,” he said.

Some localities experienced a shortage of water for several hours on Wednesday, after a nationwide power cut shut down water production on Tuesday evening.

Ultimately, we would all be in the same dry boat. We would all be out of water quite quickly

The majority of Malta’s water comes from the three reverse osmosis plants operated by the WSC which are powered by electricity. Groundwater is used as a secondary source but electricity is required for the filtration process.

Supplying the water to houses would be negatively affected as water would stop flowing through the pressurised subterranean pipes, making hill-top localities among the first to run dry. This would eventually affect the entire island, the spokesman said.

“Ultimately, we would all be in the same dry boat. The supply in some localities would last a bit longer but the difference would be negligible. We would all be out of water quite quickly,” he said.

The island does have an emergency stock of water, which is stored in 24 reservoirs across the island. However, managing them would be a problem.

Still, dry taps would not be the end of the island’s plumbing concerns. The spokesman said that the national sewage system ran from hill-top localities, like Rabat, to coastal cleaning sites such as that in Xgħajra.

Sewage is pumped through galleries using the 100 pumping stations scattered across the island.

These, the spokesman noted, also ran on electricity and would experience severe build-ups in certain localities.

“The sewage would flow down from localities like Naxxar and Rabat and then would accumulate in areas such as Marsa and Msida. Unless electricity was restored, the sewage would start to seep through manhole covers after a while,” he said. Earlier this year, the Malta Water Association had expressed concern over the island’s dependency on electric-powered reverse osmosis plants and over the limited stock of water reserves.

It made a number of recommendations on water storage, which it had submitted to the political parties.