Malta is launching a major project to separate farm waste from urban wastewater as part of a bid to meet EU standards in two years, according to the CEO of the Water Services Corporation.

A public tender for the facilities, one in Malta and another in Gozo, is expected to be issued by the agriculture ministry soon, Karl Cilia said.

These facilities will specifically target agricultural waste, a move that WSC says will ease pressure on current urban sewage systems. 

The upgrades form part of a €315 million National Investment Plan spanning the next decade, which includes a €66 million commitment to boost capacity at the main wastewater treatment plants at Iċ-Ċumnija in Mellieħa and Ta’ Barkat in Xgħajra.

The planned changes will increase Malta’s overall sewage treatment capacity by 30%. 

The exclusion of farm waste from Malta’s urban waste water facilities and the planned upgrades at Ta’ Barkat and Iċ-Ċumnija will increase their combined capacity.

The move, devised a few years ago, is set to gain traction after a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling which found Malta in violation of the EU’s Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. 

The court cited inadequate capacity at both Ta’ Barkat and Iċ-Ċumnija as major factors in Malta’s non-compliance, saying sewage was being discharged into sensitive marine environments without being treated properly. 

Cilia insists that Malta’s major problem lies in the fact that for many years, farm waste has been mixed with household sewage. Facilities originally intended for urban sewage have struggled with the added load from agricultural waste, which contains less biodegradable organics. 

“The challenges posed by farm waste on urban systems are plenty. Waste from just 1,200 cows could absorb the total capacity of the Iċ-Ċumnija plant,” Cilia said.  

“This excess organic matter has complicated the treatment process and compromised the plants’ performance over many years.”

Cilia, meanwhile, contends that sewage outflows in several bays across Malta throughout last summer, and the year before, were not caused by failures in the WSC’s network and are completely unrelated to the treatment process.

“Outflows were either the result of failures in private drainage connections or illegal discharges directly to the sea, not due to any increase of inflow of untreated drainage in Malta’s seas,” he argues.

The agriculture ministry has already published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) in the EU Official Journal, preparing potential suppliers for the upcoming project. The new facilities are expected to turn farm waste into fertilisers and other by-products.

Waste from just 1,200 cows could absorb the total capacity of the iċ-Ċumnija plant

Sewage is measured by population equivalent (p.e), which calculates the amount of organic biodegradable load in wastewater, representing the equivalent pollution load of wastewater produced by one person per day.

Malta’s current wastewater infrastructure, with iċ-Ċumnija commissioned in 2009 and Ta’ Barkat in 2011, has struggled to meet demand. Iċ-Ċumnija, initially designed to handle 44,000 p.e. of sewage, was treating almost double that, 80,000 p.e. by 2020. Since 2012, the Ta’ Barkat plant has been handling 500,000 p.e. of sewage.

The exclusion of farm waste from Malta’s urban waste water facilities and the planned upgrades at Ta’ Barkat and Iċ-Ċumnija will increase their combined capacity to 743,000 p.e, Cilia says.

But sources familiar with WSC operations and wastewater treatment said Malta has never had the necessary capacity to treat all the sewage it produces.

Some experts argue that the government should have insisted, prior to joining the EU, against a one-size-fits-all approach and that the urban wastewater directive could not be applied to an island like Malta, the source argued.

The Sant’Antnin facility has been retrofitted to handle agricultural waste and is alleviating the pressure on Ta’ Barkat and Iċ-Ċumnija.

“Back then, Malta should have pushed the idea that the construction of a pipeline to carry sewage 12 kilometres offshore would have made more economic and environmental sense than the construction of urban wastewater treatment plants,” one source said.

That sewage would still have had to be treated for the removal of microplastics, they argued, but this course of action “would have saved us at least €20 million a year”.

Fast forward to 2024, the WSC CEO is confident that the ongoing infrastructure enhancements, along with the separation of farm waste from the urban wastewater system by 2026, would position Malta to meet EU standards and fully treat its urban wastewater before it is discharged into the sea.

With the upcoming upgrade, including the installation of a Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor early next year, Iċ-Ċumnija’s capacity will reach 95,000 p.e.

Similarly, with the recent commissioning of the Sant’Antnin retrofitted plant, the Malta South treatment capacity has been increased from 500,000 to 613,000 p.e., equivalent to 23 per cent.

Cilia argues that “the decoupling of farm waste from the network will allow these facilities to treat urban wastewater more efficiently and improve the quality of the effluent released into the sea”.