The taste of tap water across the island is set to improve as part of a €310m decade-long national plan for Malta’s water sector, Environment Minister Miriam Dalli announced on Tuesday.
The plan, which will be implemented by the Water Services Corporation, spans between 2023 and 2033 - though the agency had first announced it five years ago.
It will also see upgrades in Malta’s reverse osmosis plants and drastic increases in the production of what is known as new water, or drainage water that is cleaned and repurposed to irrigate fields and farmland across Malta.
Some 41%, or €126m, of the plan’s budget are expected to come from EU funds.
Taste may vary
The taste of tap water has long been a bone of contention in Malta, with many finding it unpalatable.
Water Services Corporation CEO Karl Cilia said on Tuesday that although tap water in Malta is perfectly safe to drink and meets all international and European quality standards, its taste tends to vary depending on how far a household is from a reverse osmosis plant.
This is set to change, with efforts to harmonise the taste across the islands to be stepped up over the next years.
The first stage of the process was carried out last year, by reducing the ratio of groundwater used in tap water from 40% to 35%, with the remaining 65% now being generated through reverse osmosis.
Aside from reducing chloride levels in tap water by almost a third, this also means that the amount of water extracted from the water table decreased by some 1.5m metres cubed last year, Cilia said.
The next step in this process is to improve the capacity of the water reservoir in Ta’ Qali to create a tap water blend, meaning that tap water will start to be distributed from this central hub. A similar process is set to take place in Gozo.
AI systems to curb abuse
Environment minister Miriam Dalli said the corporation is set to invest €46m in improving its new water network to increase its production by 6,000 cubic metres each day.
In 2023, some 1.6m cubic metres of new water was used by farmers to irrigate their crops.
This project, Dalli said, is key to combating ever-worsening drought conditions brought about by climate change by improving the sustainable re-use of sewage and reducing dependency on groundwater extraction.
Water Services Corporation also hopes to curb the theft of water through the use of artificial intelligence, with new systems to track usage and detect cases in which water is being extracted and water meters bypassed.
The initial implementation of this technology resulted in over 100 cases of theft being detected in 2023, with €1m in backdated revenues being recovered.
The technology will also be used to centrally dispense new water to farms in line with their needs, depending on the size of their fields and the crops that they will be growing.
The plan also hopes to increase the production of water though the corporation’s reverse osmosis plants by a third and to step up wastewater.