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James Debono
The arid and thirsty island of Malta, which consumes vast amounts of costly fuel to convert sea water into fresh water, will finally have its own man-made “river” producing 6,500 cubic meters per day.
But according to water engineer Marco Cremona, by siting a sewage treatment plant right in the middle of nowhere at ic-Cumnija, “we could be choosing to throw the bulk of this water into the sea.”
The ic-Cumnija sewage treatment plant has yet to be constructed, and is in a race against time because the project is financed by the Italian protocol funds. Such is the rush, that a tender for its construction has been issued before the project was subjected to a public consultation.
Another site near Maghtab, the Ghallis ta’ Gewwa site, had been excluded for the siting of the plant despite the fact that it has the best re-use potential for water.
But it is now clear the water produced by the plant will not even be reaching Pwales, the area with the greatest re-use potential in the vicinity of ic-Cumnija.
Engineer Stefan Cachia, the representative of the Water Services Corporation during last Tuesday’s public hearing on the Cumnija plant, acknowledged this: “At Ghallis you have the best re-use potential,” Cachia said during a heated debate with engineer Marco Cremona.
Despite the admission, the public hearing exercise was rendered into a farce, when Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi declared during the budget speech last Monday – the eve of the public hearing – that work on the plant would be starting “in the coming weeks.”
Still, the project has not yet been given the green light by MEPA, which is calling on the public to send written submissions on the project.
Race against time
Last Tuesday’s public hearing for the development of a sewage treatment plant at ic-Cumnija in Mellieha was already seriously compromised by the fact the tender for this project had been already awarded to the joint venture IBI Spa and Polidano Brothers on 19 November 2004.
“We took a calculated risk when the tender was issued,” acknowledged Water Services Corporation representative engineer Stefan Cachia during the public hearing.
The main contention during the hearing was whether the plant should have been located on what was described by EIA as “a picturesque valley” at ic-Cumnija, where the visual impact is expected to be “medium to high”, or at Ghallis ta’ Gewwa, next to the degraded Maghtab area.
While Mellieha mayor John Buttigieg expressed relief that his locality will be spared from infrastructural works which would have resulted if sewage mains were redirected to Ghallis, Green Party Chairperson Dr Harry Vassallo and engineer Marco Cremona urged MEPA to consider the national interest by siting the site at Ghallis.
Vassallo described the choice facing MEPA as “epochal”:
“For the second time in our history, since the construction of the Wignacourt Aqueduct by the Knights of Saint John, Malta will embark on developing a man-made river, producing 6,500 cubic meters of water per day.”
Vassallo and Cremona argued that the national interest demands the full re-use of this water.
Wasted water
According to the environmental impact assessment for the project, the largest area with a high effluent re-use potential, Maghtab, lies outside the range of ic-Cumnija, which is in the north of the island.
Areas with a high effluent re-use potential are those where farmers are presently using low quality water with high levels of salinity, as well as hotels, concrete batching plants and landfills – all of which predominantly lie closer to Ghallis than Ic-Cumnija.
If the plant had been constructed at Ghallis, both Maghtab and Burmarrad would have fallen within its range.
Cremona claims farmers in the areas near ic-Cumnija already have access to good quality water and will not readily give up their bore holes for poorer effluent from the treatment plant.
On the other hand farmers in Maghtab do not have access to good quality water and would therefore welcome wastewater from a nearby sewage plant.
In fact, the EIA states only 29 per cent of the treated water at ic-Cumnija, would be taken up by farmers if this was distributed free of charge.
But the water produced by the plant will not even be reaching Pwales, the area with the greatest re-use potential in the vicinity of ic-Cumnija.
This means that far less than 29 per cent of water will be re-used. It also emerges that the water will not be offered free of charge to farmers as the WSC plans to put a price to the treated effluent.
Pumping costs
While acknowledging that Ghallis has the best re-use potential, engineer Stefan Cachia insisted the Ghallis plant would have required major infrastructural trench-works in Mellieha, the newly asphalted road near Kennedy Grove, and the Salini coastroad in order to redirect existing sewage networks. A treatment plant at Ghallis would also have required a submarine outfall.
Even the WSC would have incurred an additional expense of 16 per cent had it opted for Ghallis, with Cachia going as far as describing Ghallis as a white elephant.
But engineer Marco Cremona disputed these statistics because no value was given to the treated effluent. “How can you give a zero value to the treated effluent, where in one case you will be practically using all of the water and in the other case less than 29 per cent?” asked Cremona.
Cachia replied by saying that more water would be available for reuse if the abuse by hotels flushing seawater in the drainage system is curtailed. But he also acknowledged the WSC’s cost analysis had been based on pre-budget electricity costs. Since 70 per cent of the water directed to ic-Cumnija comes from the Bugibba-Qawra tourist zone, electricity is needed for the operation of several pumping stations.
Since Bugibba and Qawra are much closer to Ghallis, these costs would be significantly less.
“Where’s the logic in pumping all that sewage from Qawra and Bugibba up three of Malta’s highest hills to ic-Cumnija, when one could make maximum re-use if it was directed to nearby Ghallis?” asks Cremona.
In the absence of re-use, water could end up dumped in the sea.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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