Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1061063
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 12 DECEMBER 2018 7 NEWS ANALYSIS JAMES DEBONO IN the wake of the increase in population water consumption has increased by nearly 4% be- tween 2017 and 2018, official data released by the Water Ser- vices Corporation shows. But thanks to improved ef- ficiency the WSC plans to in- crease production without any negative impact on water and energy resources. Thanks to the reduction in leakages, less water has to be produced than 22 years ago to meet present day demand. In fact water production was reduced from over 50 million cubic metres in 1996 when most water was lost to leakages to less than 30 million cubic metres by 2010. Production started to in- crease again, surpassing the 32 million cubic metre mark in the past five years. It is now planned that by 2050 production will rise to 38 million cubic metres from the present 32 million cu- bic metres. To meet the increased de- mand, the Water Services Cor- poration is planning to increase the production of desalinated water from Reverse Osmosis plants while clamping further on water leakages. By increasing well-fields in the existing RO plants the WSC plans to increase production by an additional 14,000 cubic me- tres per day. The construction of a new RO plant at Hondoq ir-Rummien will produce a fur- ther 9,000 cubic metres every day. The WSC also plans to in- crease the proportion of desali- nated water in the water blend by decreasing ground water extraction from 13.7 million cubic metres to 10 million cu- bic metres. In this way the per- centage of ground water in the blend of water offered to con- sumers will be reduced from 40% to 30%. While water from desalinated water is more expensive to pro- duce due to energy costs, this cost has already gone down from 7.6 kWh for each cubic metre produced to 4.4 kWh. Through further investment in efficiency, the cost will go down further to 2.8 kWh. Although water derived from the water table is less expen- sive to produce, it comes at an environmental and resource cost which is not factored in the billing system. The WSC's impact on ground water re- sources is limited as more wa- ter is extracted from hundreds of private boreholes. This impact may be addressed by offering more new water de- rived from sewage treatment to farmers. Malta currently pro- duces 21 million cubic metres of new water. During the past years the Wa- ter Services Corporation has also increased the number of inspections on suspected water theft or tampering. The num- ber of inspections increased from 424 in 2015 to 1,306 in the first 10 months of 2018. 54 cases of possible misuse were found in 2017, up from 26 in 2015. More water needed to quench increased population Malta will need to produce less water than in 1996 when most of the water produced was lost to leakages MATTHEW AGIUS A homeless man has pleaded guilty to robbing three convenience stores at knifepoint. Justin Camilleri, 31, was arraigned before magistrate Audrey Demicoli yesterday. He was charged with 14 offences in all: three counts each of theft aggravated by violence, illegal arrest and carrying a knife in public without a licence, as well as charges of handling a stolen car and driving it with a different car's number plate. He was also charged with defrauding a petrol station with a stolen cheque, breaching court-imposed conditions and recidivism. The theft charges were related to different instances, with the accused having robbed shops in Santa Venera, Birkirkara and San Gwann on 5 No- vember, 7 December and 9 December respectively. Camilleri pleaded guilty as charged. His lawyer, Andy Ellul made an im- passioned case for clemency to the court. The accused had cooperated with the investigation and had ex- plained to the police that he had not committed the theft of the cheque, number plate and the car, but that he had only used them. The police inves- tigations into these thefts are under- stood to be still ongoing. On punishment, Ellul told the court that he knows the man and his fam- ily personally. The recent loss of his younger brother in tragic circum- stances didn't help, he said. The man's use of drugs was the problem, said the lawyer. He had been working but this has now stopped and he had trouble with his family due to the drugs. "He did what he did out of his des- peration to end the drug abuse cycle," said the lawyer. "He started to do things in the hope of getting caught." The court announced that it would deliver its sentence on Friday. The man was remanded in custody. Inspectors Fabian Fleri and Lydon Zammit prosecuted. Man admits to three hold-ups