Plans for Gozo sewage treatment plant approved

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority yesterday approved a Water Services Corporation project to build a sewage treatment plant at Mgarr ix-Xini.

The full development application includes the building of an intake pumping station, a temporary construction camp and adjoining access roads.

Permission was granted as the project - presented by Anthony Rizzo for the WSC - was considered to be in line with the local planning policy stating that the "sewage treatment plant for Gozo shall be located near Ras il-Hobz".

The permit states that sewage may be treated through a process known as Extended Aeration with Full Sludge Stabilisation in Aeration Tanks (Bio-Reactors). Other technologies to process sewage may only be applied if approved by Mepa through a fresh development application.

In 1991, the Sewerage Master Plan for Malta and Gozo, which had been commissioned by the government, stated that two sewage treatment plants should be built in Malta and one in Gozo. The document said that in the case of Gozo, the plant should be built close to the islands' main sewage outfalls - Ras il-Hobz in the case of Gozo.

The other two sewage outfalls in Gozo - at Wied il-Mielah and San Blas Bay - are to be phased out.

Outline development permission was granted in September 2002 after an Environment Impact Statement (EIS) was commissioned in July 1998.

While negotiating with the European Union on the Urban Waste Water Directive, Malta agreed to eliminate 4,500 cubic metres of raw sewage discharged into the sea in Gozo. The EIA stipulated that this target had increased to 6,500 cubic metres. The permission was also granted against a guarantee that effluent discharged into the sea or used for agricultural irrigation shall conform with European legislation and with standards imposed by the World Health Organisation (especially in the case of effluent used to water crops).

The Mepa board also considered acceptable the application's technical details to reduce odour emissions.

The plant should also be equipped with a back-up energy system linked to the pumping station and designed to avoid discharge of untreated waste into the sea in case of power failure.

The corporation bound itself to monitor the construction and operational phases of the development, to see to it that the construction is properly embellished and that light pollution is reduced to the minimum by intruder-triggered lights.