MP complains of misplaced investment in water services

The opposition spokesman on water services, Louis Buhagiar, yesterday referred to government plans to build a water "polishing" plant in Gozo, saying it would be better if water quality in Gozo were improved by blending groundwater with water supplied from the Cirkewwa reverse osmosis plant, since the plant was working at half of its capacity. This would also make more sense since Gozo was expected to require water from reverse osmosis in the future as demand increased.

The polishing plant is to be built at Ta' Cenc to improve the quality of water pumped from underground sources.

Speaking during the debate on the financial estimates of the Water Services Corporation, Prof. Buhagiar said this sector was characterised by poor planning and misplaced investment.

Although output from reverse osmosis plants had increased over the past year because of low rainfall, the utilisation rate of the plants was still 50 per cent, showing how funds had been squandered on excessive production capacity when the money could have been used immediately to improve the distribution network to reduce leakage.

Those funds, he said, could also have been better used to improve water storage capacity. The fact that a reservoir had not been built at Xwieki meant that areas supplied from the Pembroke reverse osmosis plant ended up without water whenever a power cut stopped production.

Prof. Buhagiar said water quality was still unsatisfactory. He agreed that Malta should attain EU quality standards, yet it appeared that even the lower standards of the World Health Organisation had not been reached yet.

The corporation, he said, also needed to show greater commitment for the provision of a better service, rather than boast of lower operating costs. The Federation of Industry had recently shown how its members were dissatisfied with the quality of service currently given.

The corporation also needed to improve its billing section and act to recover outstanding debts while respecting social justice. Over the past year, action had started for the suspension of service to 3,400 users. Consideration had to be given to people who could not afford this basic service.

Prof. Buhagiar said water management had to be comprehensive. Malta needed to treat and recycle sewage water, not only to protect the environment but also to reduce the practice by farmers of drilling illegal boreholes.

Replying, Agriculture Minister Ninu Zammit recalled that the WSC was set up at a time of crisis, when the water supply used to be systematically cut because of the water shortage. Now, Malta had a stable water supply, and because there was spare capacity in the reverse osmosis plants, the sharp drop in rainfall had not caused a disruption of supply. Malta should thank God that it had spare production capacity in the RO plants to meet future problems.

Investment, however, had not been concentrated solely on production facilities. Vast improvement had also been made to the distribution network.

But leakage in the distribution system could not be detected before pressure was put on the system. Since then, hundreds of miles of pipes were replaced and new ones laid, particularly to the south. As a result, leakages started being substantially reduced and the people started to save because lower production was now sufficient to meet demand.

Mr Zammit said Malta needed to be increasingly careful to protect the aquifer from contamination because it remained an important source of water. The Agriculture Department was involved in a programme on the management of the aquifer and the gathering of information about contaminants which might seep into the water table from fields and farms.Wied Ghasel (including Chadwick Lakes), Wied Kbir and Wied Sewda needed to continue to be improved because they were an important source for the aquifer to be recharged.

Mr Zammit said he disagreed with the way the retaining walls at Chadwick Lakes had been rebuilt at the time of the Labour government since the method used would not give long-lasting results.

The present government, as part of its rural development plan, would carry out a project to rehabilitate the whole of Wied Ghasel, including Chadwick Lakes, to eliminate contamination that may be caused by sewage flows and excessive pesticides, stop soil erosion and facilitate the recharging of the aquifer. New street furniture would also be installed at Chadwick Lakes.

The agriculture department was also working with the WSC to curb over-extraction of groundwater.

Mr Charles Buhagiar, opposition spokesman on the infrastructure, said he agreed about the danger to groundwater caused from contamination by pesticides and sewage, but the biggest threat to the aquifer was over-extraction and private boreholes. Unfortunately, the WSC was not metering the amount of water drawn by private boreholes. He was not saying this water should be charged, but the amount of extraction that was taking place was exaggerated and, as a result, the quality of water underground was deteriorating.

Furthermore, one should consider whether private industrial concerns, such as batching plants and those which supplied water by bowser should continue to use groundwater, which was a national resource.

Unfortunately, the Water Services Authority had arraigned no one over unauthorised groundwater extraction. This was not serious and the WSC and the new Malta Resources Authority should take forceful action.

Furthermore, over the past four years the government had not cleaned a single valley.

The Labour MP also insisted that the WSC should shoulder its responsibilities of managing storm water. Whenever it rained heavily, people's homes were flooded, and then the water was wasted in the sea.

The WSC was also saying nothing about any plans to treat and reuse sewage, which should also be within its responsibilities. Another resource was thus being lost. And the quality of output from the sewage treatment plant at Marsascala had deteriorated. Was anybody doing anything?

Mr Buhagiar observed that the WSC's revenue from sale of water had gone up steeply after 1998, so it was not a Labour government which had increased rates, despite the criticism made against it.

Were Malta to become a member of the EU, the cost of water would have to be recovered by the corporation from consumers without a government subsidy.

On a point of order, Economic Services Minister Josef Bonnici said the government would be able to continue subsidising the cost of water to the consumer.

Nationalist MP Frans Agius criticised the Labour government of the 1980s for its short-sighted policies on power and water.

The PN's emphasis on raising production as soon as it took office had been well placed, since the water supply was a basic right of the people. Investment in this sector was investment in the people's health and the government should therefore continue to work on improving water quality.

Mr Noel Farrugia (MLP) defended the gabions used by the Labour government for the rehabilitation of Wied Qlejja (Chadwick Lakes). That method had been recommended by foreign experts and was most suited to preserve the soil, he said. What was shameful was how concrete walls were replacing rubble walls at Burmarrad.

In his winding up, Prof. Bonnici denied that there had been misplaced investment in water services. At the time when the PN took office, there was such a serious water crisis that nobody knew what level of production was needed to satisfy demand. Neither could anybody know the state of the distribution system before adequate water was put into it. Once the state of the distribution system was established, massive investment started being made in that sector too.

Although there was excess capacity in RO plants, as there should be, it was not true that half the plants were idle.

After such lack of investment by Labour governments in the water sector, it was shameful that the opposition was now criticising the investment made in both production and distribution.

Prof. Bonnici, reacting to Mr Charles Buhagiar's remarks, said the WSC's revenue had gone up not because tariffs had gone up steeply, but because there was more efficient metering and because arrears due at the time of the 1997 Labour government had been collected.

He agreed that a reservoir was needed at Xwieki to store water from the Pembroke RO plant and preliminary work in this direction had started. A tender would be issued in 2004. But another problem affecting the Sliema area, which is supplied from Pembroke, was distribution. Work was already currently in hand to improve the distribution system.

Referring to other remarks by Prof. Louis Buhagiar, the minister said that in demanding payment for water services, the WSC was very aware of the social needs of its clients. Indeed, nobody's water supply was ever cut but the WSC sometimes asked Enemalta to cut the power supply. In any case, where was Labour's social conscience when it planned to raise the water tariffs? Furthermore, under Labour, the WSC wanted to cut off power to more than 8,000 clients, almost three times as many as under the present government.

Prof. Bonnici said a number of sewage treatment plans would be built. The first would be set up in Gozo thanks to a financial grant from the EU.

Prof. Bonnici said he was surprised by Prof. Louis Buhagiar's remarks against the setting up of a water polishing plant in Gozo, proposing the transfer of water from Cirkewwa instead. That possibility had been considered, but it would be better if Gozo's water supply was as self-sufficient as possible rather than being rendered fragile and dependent on Cirkewwa. Furthermore, this option was discarded for economic reasons.

The estimates were approved after a division, the opposition voting against.