The Water Services Corporation posted a profit of €5.4 million last year when the Nationalist administration was projecting a loss of €5 million, Parliament was told.

Introducing the debate on the WSC budget for 2014, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi noted that the corporation had been in such dire straits that the €0.5 million deficit in 2011 rose to €3.8 million the following year.

The WSC also had debts of €62 million with local banks and a further €40 million with the European Investment Bank.

Despite the fact that last March water tariffs were reduced by five per cent for households, the corporation was expected to return a profit of €5 million through increased efficiency and reduced costs while still making the necessary investment.

Dr Mizzi said the WSC was launching two new initiatives: a pilot project to research the country’s aquifers and identify water waste and a sustainable urban drainage system for both domestic and commercial use.

Extensive investment has been made in the treatment of waste and improvement of drainage

Extensive investment had been made in the treatment of waste and the improvement of the drainage system. One of the projects in the pipeline was the purification of drainage water that would be turned into “new water” and which would benefit from €20 million in EU funds.

Water leakages, which had been steadily increasing over the last few years had, through an efficiency management programme, been reduced by 50 cubic metres an hour.

The IT system agreement with IBM, which had cost the WSC an “exorbitant” amount, was renegotiated and restructured so that the WSC would not be so dependent on the supplier. The corporation would be increasing its internal local resources to avoid paying €50,000 or €60,000 each time.

There had also been improvements in the reverse osmosis plants to consume less energy. The corporation would also benefit when the electricity tariff for industry would be reduced in 2015 because of the hefty electricity bills it faced to run such plants. Ground water polishing plants would be set up through EU funds.

Dr Mizzi said there were plans in place for the better use and catchment of rain water through the introduction of management plans to construct new reservoirs and identify other sites for collection.