The sewage, water and electricity infrastructure in Sliema will cope with the added demand of a number of planned high-rise projects, according to the responsible authorities.

The island’s ability to provide utilities for a number of tall buildings planned for the Sliema area have been brought into question in recent weeks with many wondering whether the necessary infrastructure was in place.

Enemalta, the State energy provider, told the Times of Malta an “extensive” upgrade of the high voltage network in the Sliema-St Julian’s area was under way and this would ensure capacity was increased to keep up with the expected higher demand.

Tall buildings planned for Fort Cambridge and the Townsquare project in Qui-si-Sana have been the subject of criticism from residents who questioned, among other things, how the power supply would keep up.

“We already have issues with our electricity, just imagine when we add so much more demand,” resident Chris Apap told the Times of Malta during a protest against high-rise projects last week.

Enemalta said an €80 million network reinforcement project included a new power distribution centre in St Andrew’s, which had been commissioned earlier this year. Another new station on Manoel Island would be connected to the grid shortly.

“These centres will provide increased flexibility and capacity in these localities by supporting other major nearby nodes,” a company spokesman said.

Old switchgear equipment in the Sliema area was being replaced with “more reliable technology” and “kilometres” of new cables were being laid to allow Enemalta to react faster in the case of accidental damage or natural faults in the grid.

This newspaper last week reported concerns raised by Philip Grech, the former director of the Drainage Department, that unless adequate studies were conducted on the Sliema sewage set-up, the planned developments could overload the system.

Mr Grech said that, without a plan of the cumulative effects of such projects, developers would be “shooting in the dark”.

“On the one hand, developers could get blamed for sewage problems which are not their fault. But, on the other, they could be building six-star developments supported by primitive infrastructure. The results would not be good,” he warned.

A Water Services Corporation spokesman said the area’s infrastructure was “adequate” and would handle the extra loads without any problems. The same was true of the supply of water.

The WSC came under fire last week after a case officer’s report on the Townsquare project claimed the corporation had been asked for its input on the sewage set up more than a year ago but no reply had been received. The report said the lack of input was taken as a sign that the network was adequate but residents since complained that the Qui-si-Sana peninsula was already experiencing sewage problems without the added pressure of a number of high-rise projects.

Questions sent to the corporation on why it had not given its input on this matter remained unanswered at the time of writing.