The Water Services Corporation has assumed responsibility for sewage systems - taking over the Drainage Department.

The prime minister approved the re-assignment of 508 public officers in the Drainage Department in Malta and another 106 in Gozo to the WSC. These are joining the 1,084 employees already employed by the WSC.

The corporation will also be taking over the implementation of the sewerage master plan.

At the moment, a number of key projects are awaiting decisions and the corporation will ensure that these progress without further delays over the next few weeks.

WSC chairman Michael Falzon said Malta had a number of commitments with the EU regarding sewage treatment. These included that:

¤ the Gozo treatment plant should be fully functional by the end of December, 2005. This project was to be co-financed through EU pre-accession funds;

¤ the Malta north treatment plant should be functional by December, 2005, but its location is still to be finalised. However, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority has just accepted the project to be located somewhere in ic-Cumnija. The project will be financed through the fifth Italian financial protocol; and

¤ the Malta south treatment plant for which a number of decisions have to be taken, namely the location of the plant at Wied Ghammieq, and the capacity of the plant. Financing of this project still needed to be identified. The corporation also had other projects to extend and improve the sewerage system.

But at this stage, no major changes in the operations of the Drainage Department were envisaged, Mr Falzon said.

He said, however, that a consolidation exercise of the resources of the corporation and the department resources in the areas concerning IT, telemetry, health and safety and stores administration was to be carried out over the next few weeks.

The drainage department administration staff will vacate the present premises in Floriana and move into the WSC head office in Luqa, whereas the workshops at Marsa MSD section are to be transferred to the drainage department workshop section in Marsa.