Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1509248
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 OCTOBER 2023 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA NATIONALIST candidate for Europe, Peter Agius, wants the National Audit Office to audit €60 million in European funds he claims have not achieved their purpose. The funds in question had to lead to the treatment of all urban and rural sewage, the production of polished, second-class water delivered to farmers as 'new wa- ter', and the treatment of sewage effluent before it is dumped at sea. "In spite of this spend, with the treatment plants having been built and the government toasting its successes, it is clear that practical- ly all these deliverables have not been fully attained," Agius said in his letter to the Auditor General. Agius is claiming that 'new wa- ter', the polished, second-class water that is produced from sew- age and then re-used only for ag- ricultural purposes, has not been distributed to all farmers across the island. The water is delivered from the treatment plants to card-operated dispensers in agricultural zones, but not every farmer has received a steady stream of the nutri- ent-rich water, Agius said. "In the last years, farmers who have be- come dependent on the supply of new water were this summer left without any supply for days on end." Agius said the lack of new water had affected farmers in Żabbar, Mellieħa and Gozo, who lost out on crop yields due to the absence of the daily supply, which at one point was restricted to just once a week throughout the hot summer. Agius said he was ready to sup- ply the NAO with the contacts of the affected farmers. In two other complaints to the NAO, Agius said that the Mal- ta's WSC was also pumping out untreated sewage or sewage that had not been treated to the lev- els required at law into the sea. He specifically referred to health warnings on sewage at sea issued for the bays of St George's, Bal- luta, Qajjenza, Buġibba, and Fond Għadir and Qui Si Sana in Sliema. Agius added that in May 2023, the European Commission no- tified Malta that it had not taken the necessary measures to ensure that urban run-off in the Malta South and North agglomerations enters the sewage system to be given secondary treatment, before it is discharged at sea. This letter of formal notice from the EC is now the subject of an infringement procedure against Malta. "This action from the Commission clearly shows that Malta is not delivering the out- comes that are tied to these Euro- pean funds, that is for sewage to be treated before being discharged at sea. Indeed, through periodical testing, the Commission is show- ing that Malta is discharging sew- age at sea in the north, from the Ċumnija plant in Mellieħa, as well as from the Barkat plant in the south," Agius said. "These reports show the Maltese government and its responsible authorities for EU funds and wa- ter management, are not in line with the obligations tied to these funds. The public is suffering for their incompetence and lack of planning... the public is owed a clear audit on the spending of tax money and the breach of environ- mental standards." The Commission referred Malta to the Court of Justice of the Euro- pean Union for failure to comply with the Urban Wastewater Treat- ment Directive, which requires it to ensure the proper collection and treatment of wastewater. The Commission says that while wastewater is being directed to treatment plants, such as the ones in Mellieħa and Xgħajra, the waste waters exiting the treatment plants do not meet the quality re- quirements of the directive. This is particularly the case for the 'Malta North' agglomeration. This situation is mainly due to the discharge of animal waste by farmers into the municipal waste- water system, a long-standing problem, which hampers the per- formance of the treatment plants and for which the authorities have not yet found solutions. The New Water programme has an annual production capacity of 7 million cubic metres of high-qual- ity water and has the potential to address up to 35% of the current total water demand of the agri- cultural sector. In July, the energy ministry announced that farm- ers in Żurrieq, Safi, Marsaxlokk, Żejtun, Għaxaq, and Gudja were poised to benefit from a €24.5 million project to extend the new water to south and southwestern parts of Malta. It is estimated that some 350 farmers, covering an additional 223 hectares of agricultural land, will benefit from this expansion. Agius wants NAO probe into sewage treatment plants A farmer in Xgħajra looks on at the Ta' Barkat sewage plant after encountering problems accessing the new water at his distribution point. Photo: James Bianchi