The Water Services Corporation has brought down leakage from its network almost to the economic level, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in Parliament this morning.

Water leakage used to reach 3,900 cubic metres per hour in 1995 when the Water Loss Management programme was launched. It is now less than 460 cubic metres per hour. Malta produces 29 million cubic metres of water per year, of which 56% comes from reverse osmosis plants.

This huge improvement, the minister said, had come about through upgrading of the infrastructure as well as repairs. Last year alone, there were 17,000 repairs.

The minister said that the WSC was close to reaching the economic level of leakage, where the costs of continuing to improve the infrastructure, apart from regular maintenance, would cost more than the cost of producing water.

The corporation, however, was continuing its control process through the replacement of old meters.

Earlier in his speech, Mr Fenech placed importance on the recent commissioning on the last and largest sewage treatment plant, saying all sewage was now being treated before being pumped out into the sea.

The WSC was now holding talks with the major polluters to reduce waste and material which could harm the plants, he said. Last year alone, the WSC tackled 2,000 blockages caused by irregular dumping in the sewage system.  He said the new plant, at Ta' Barkat, was also producing 1MW of electricity from biogas per hour.

Talks were in hand, Mr Fenech said, on the possibility of using this water rather than dumping it.

The minister said the WSC was achieving significant savings on the operation of the reverse osmosis plants, even though 70% of total cost on water production stemmed from energy costs.