The University of Malta has embarked on a €2.5 million EU project which could potentially reduce Malta’s water consumption by up to 30 per cent, the amount used for flushing toilets.

The Micro WatTS project aims to treat grey water - waste water from baths, sinks, washing machines and other kitchen appliances – and re-use it for toilet flushing.

The grey water will be treated by using specially-coated surfaces that deploy solar energy to kill the bacteria in the water.

The project is a Maltese-Italian collaboration partly financed under Interreg, an EU funding scheme, and ranked first among more than 80 submitted proposals.

Project leader Maurice Grech said such cross-border collaboration at a high level of research was meant to trigger the development of innovative eco-products and services.

“In the long run, both the carbon as well as the water footprint will be reduced while reaping a better harvest from natural resources,” he said at the launch of the project.

Micro WatTS will combine expertise of academics and industry in a bid to ease water problems common to Malta and Sicily, through a collaboration with the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Catania, and industrial partners Econetique and PlasticaAlfa, which specialise in renewable energy technologies, innovative polymeric products for water management.

The project’s first step will be identifying polymers and surfaces that can best be used to treat water. Tests will then be carried out to see their effectiveness, while biological tests will be conducted on the treated grey water.

Econetique and Plastica Alfa will be designing and building two standalone micro solar water treatment systems, one for use in a household and another for a small firm.

EU funds parliamentary secretary Aaron Farrugia, addressing the project’s opening conference, said that 15 projects had been selected for funding under the Italy-Malta programme so far. In all, 32 Maltese beneficiaries have received €9 million in funding. He said the funded projects all aimed at reinforcing sustainable growth at the cross-border level with focus on research and innovation, fostering competitiveness of SMEs and protection of environment.

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