Malta hauled to EU court over farmland waste disposal in drainage system

The European Commission is referring Malta to the European Union Court of Justice over its waste water treatment and failure to comply with the Urban Waste Treatment Directive.

The Directive requires member states to ensure that the proper collection and treatment of waste waters, to reduce the undesirable effects when they are discharged at sea.

Untreated waste water can be contaminated with bacteria and viruses, a risk to human health. It also contains nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus which can damage freshwaters and the marine environment, by promoting excessive growth of algae that chokes other life, a process known as eutrophication.

Malta already has waste water treatment plants, but problems with animal sludge dumping persist. When sludge from animal farms is deposited into the drainage system, this increases sewage treatment costs for the Water Services Corporation and even shuts down the sewage water treatment systems due to excessive pollutants.

“Malta should have been fully compliant with the Directive since 31 March 2007. The main issue in Malta is the performance of the waste water treatment plants. The Maltese agglomerations have a municipal collecting system in place and the waste water is being directed to a treatment plant, however, the waste waters exiting the treatment plants do not meet the quality requirements of the directive,” the European Commission said.

It said this was particularly the case in the north, with water being discharged in a sensitive area, without being treated stringently. “This situation is mainly due to the discharge of farmyard waste into the municipal waste water system, a long-standing problem in Malta, which hampers the performance of the treatment plants and for which the authorities have not yet found solutions,” the EC said.

The Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Malta in December 2016, followed by a reasoned opinion in October 2017.

“Despite some progress, the Maltese authorities have not fully addressed the grievances. The Commission considers that efforts by the Maltese authorities have to date been unsatisfactory and insufficient and is therefore referring Malta to the Court of Justice of the European Union,” it said.