An open skip used to collect soggy fibrous material and tissue paper filtered from raw sewage at a government treatment plant in Mellieħa has been made inaccessible to the public following queries by The Times.
The rusty skip was located outside a pumping station – in the open countryside – that feeds the €10.7 million Iċ-Ċumnija sewage treatment plant and collected filtered material, including toilet paper and other non soluble material, which was dumped from a conveyer belt emerging from the building.
The Environment Health Directorate closed off the area just a few hours after The Times queried the potential health hazard of the skip last Friday.
“Without prejudice to any occupational hazards, the directorate is issuing instructions to have the skip rendered inaccessible to the public. From the information gathered, this is a pre-treatment stage of the sewage treatment plant where material is filtered,” the directorate said. It said it was only informed about the skip after it was alerted by The Times and “is informed that the skip is emptied regularly, every three to four weeks, by a private contractor”. When contacted, the Finance Ministry, which is responsible for the Water Services Corporation, argued that the system was temporary and that the skip was emptied by the contractor every two weeks. However, it blamed illegal dumping in the sewers, which could pose a “threat to the treatment plant’s operations”.
The treatment plant “is receiving all kinds of material”, which should have not been dumped in the sewers, a spokesman for the ministry said. “As a result, this temporary solution is used for testing purposes in view of the sewage treatment plant operations,” the spokesman added.
Also, the contractor visited the site twice daily, he said.
He pointed out that it was the WSC’s duty to “protect” the plant, “which represents a substantial investment not only financially but also because of its positive contribution to the environment and the sea. Its failure could mean untreated waste water being thrown in our seas”.
The Times photographer who took pictures of the skip on Friday, reported gaining easy access to the skip.
The ministry argued the skip was in a remote area. However, here too, sources who alerted The Times about the skip’s presence, reported that the material in the skip scattered in the surrounding countryside, especially on windy days, dotting the nearby plants and rocks with the grey material.
The plant was officially inaugurated in March 2009 and was part-financed by Italian financial protocol funds. One of three plants, Iċ-Ċumnija station caters for waste generated by about 30,000 people in the north and processes an estimated 6,700 cubic meters of sewage a day.
The skip is not the only problem with the plant, which has a pending application before the planning authority to sanction part of the building that was built without the necessary permits.
The planning authority had asked for the pumping station to be moved away from pristine garigue and the WSC followed such advice without, however, first asking for a permit, according to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.
The plant has a chequered history and had encountered problems just one month after it had been opened. The Sunday Times had reported that murky effluent was being dumped into the sea. The authorities had blamed the farmers working in the nearby fields, saying they were dumping solid waste into the sewage system.
Last month, the WSC said it was investigating the cause of another sewage overflow at the Mellieħa plant, adding that its officials were looking into the operations and maintenance procedures to establish what led to the overflow.