WSC selling more water even as production falls

The Water Services Corporation has seen sale of water rise from Lm5 million to Lm12.8 million over the past 10 years even though production during that period was reduced from 50 million cubic metres, to 34 million cubic metres, Economic Services Minister Prof. Josef Bonnici told parliament yesterday.

He said this result was achieved thanks to better metering and billing and a drastic reduction of leakage in the distribution system, and without the drastic price increases which the Labour government had planned.

Speaking during the debate on the financial estimates of the corporation, Prof. Bonnici said massive investment made over the past few years meant that Malta now had a water production capacity that exceeded demand. This remained true even though groundwater extraction had been scaled back because of low rainfall.

He observed that total rainfall in the year up to September was half the average of the past 50 years. As a result, production from reverse osmosis plants had been increased to 60 per cent of total production from 50 per cent. Although this meant an increase in power consumption, that increase had not been as high thanks to investment over the past few years in new energy saving equipment at Pembroke Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant, which was Malta's biggest.

Turning to water quality, he said the quality of water in 80 per cent of localities had been improved and met European standards but other localities still had high chloride or nitrate levels, caused by seepage of materials from fields. This was a matter which was being tackled by the corporation.

Gozo, which had high reliance on ground water extraction, would see the setting up of a "polishing plant" at Ta' Cenc which would purify ground water before it was put in the distribution system. Lm650,000 would be spent for this purpose next year.

In Malta, water quality was being improved by a blending of the high quality water from RO plants with water pumped from underground sources. Mosta, which currently depended on ground water, would soon enjoy better quality water thanks to investment in the distribution system which would allow its water supply to be blended with water produced by reverse osmosis. In the future, polishing plants would also be set up in Malta.

Would there have been such commitment to European standards had Malta not been seeking EU membership? He had seen no such commitment in MLP documents.

The cost of water production, Prof. Bonnici said, was also declining, but wages were rising. The corporation this year had stabilised its borrowing and renegotiated its loans, saving Lm100,000.

He said the government subvention to the WSC had been in constant decline over the past five years, dropping from Lm14 million to Lm6.7 million. Because of the greater use of RO plants and the new collective agreement for the corporation's workers, the subvention would rise to Lm7.8 million over the new year.

Prof. Bonnici said other investment planned by the WSC was aimed at creating greater storage capacity of water produced at Pembroke. At present areas supplied from Pembroke ended up without water whenever production at the RO plant was halted, such as when there was a power cut. This investment, he said, would reach Lm8 million and may be financed through EU structural funds.

Turning to the financial estimates, Prof. Bonnici said the corporation was projecting a three per cent increase in the sale of water due to an increase in connections. Spending this year had been reduced to Lm18.6 million from Lm21 million in 2001. Production and operating costs were however expected to rise to Lm20 million over the new year because of higher wages and increased production by reverse osmosis plants.

Prof. Bonnici said the corporation would seek to improve its efficiency to make up for the projected increased outlay. He observed that the corporation's workforce had been reduced through natural wastage over the past few years and overtime had been reduced as well.

The corporation, he said, had an intensive programme of repairs and maintenance planned for next year aimed at further reducing leakage of the distribution system, thus further cutting down on production demand. Leakage reduction targets set for 2009 would actually be reached by 2006.

A new system of meter reading was being introduced, first in Gozo, as a result of which meter readers were using hand-held computers that allowed them to input data and validate it against previous consumption reading, thus cutting down on mistakes.