Prime Minister Joseph Muscat took immediate action to compensate consumers in the wake of the Enemalta disaster. He and his government are to be congratulated on this.

In addition, I understand a properly regulated Customer Charter is now being created to ensure all consumers know their rights when protracted power outages occur. This will bring Malta into compliance with the rest of Europe.

This may now be an appropriate time to review the service responsibilities of other utilities in Malta. Principally the telecommunications sector.

Malta can only maintain and grow inward investment if both power and telecommunications are properly regulated, such that where failures occur then resilience plans are in place. For example, the protection of Luqa airport from the two hours of lost power.

On the telecoms side, the ability of Go to use its copper backbone to transfer service from other companies and act as the supplier of last resort may be worth considering as part of a national recovery plan.

Customers need to review their own planning. Once Enemalta has established a power failure notification or warning, they should activate procedures to transfer telephone services to other branches. They can consider alliances with other companies located some distance away and shift services there; relocate staff where possible; divert vital landlines to mobile telephones, etc.

I am sure if we all emulate the forward thinking of this government and act quickly in the future, we can mitigate any damage done to businesses and to Brand Malta.