€100m water infrastructure investment programme announced

The Water Services Corporation will be investing €100 million in a number of water infrastructure projects, including a ‘state-of-theart’ reverse osmosis plant in Gozo.

The projects were announced by Energy and Water Management Minister Joe Mizzi and Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds Aaron Farrugia.

One of the projects, the minister said, was related to the protection and sustainable management of the water table.

Another aim is to improve the quality of water.

And to ensure that Gozo has a secure supply of water, a new reverse osmosis plant will be built at an existing WSC site. Another project is related to drainage.

Mizzi said that the WSC would be extending its network while addressing problematic areas.

There will be increased investment in ‘new water’ which will see good grade secondary water carried to new locations.

PS Farrugia said that the projects aimed to address challenges brought about by the country’s development. He said some €92 million were being allocated from EU cohesion funds.

WSC CEO Richard Bilocca also announced that uniform quality drinkable water would soon flow through the taps of every home in Malta.

Bilocca said that the corporation would be increasing its capacity to “blend” water produced at reverse osmosis plants or extracted from the water table with that gathered from reservoirs. This would ensure uniformity of the water supplied across the island.

The increased capacity will allow the corporation to rely less on ground water extraction, which today makes up around 40 per cent of the water consumed by households

The corporation will be boring a 9.5-kilometre underground tunnel to convey water from the Pembroke plant to the Ta’ Qali reservoirs, Bilocca said.

The WSC will also be upgrading its reverse osmosis plants to increase energy efficiency and production capacity.