Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/960495
10 maltatoday SUNDAY 1 APRIL 2018 News JAMES DEBONO THE Food Safety Commission has justified its decision not to grant a licence to hydrologist Marco Cremona's innovative membrane- based process to turn hotels' waste- water into potable water for re-use in showers, saying that no country in the European Union derives its drinking water from treated sew- age. The FSC has already said the main reason for turning down Cremona's application centred on fears of unknown viruses that can- not yet be tested, which could be found in the treated water. But the same precautionary prin- ciple is not applied to tap water, bottled water or the treated sewage that is used to irrigate crops. To this the commission has said that research it conducted had shown that no country within the EU "treats wastewater into potable water for human consumption". But Cremona has rebutted that no other European country is faced by the water scarcity experienced in Malta. "It is a well-documented fact there is no country in the EU that suffers from water scarcity and needs to recycle water as much as Malta," he said, citing numerous installations of production of pota- ble water from wastewater, world- wide. These include the Direct Potable Re-use Plant in the Colorado River, opened in 2013, which can treat up to two million gallons of waste- water effluent per day to drinking water standards. A second Ameri- can plant using the same process was opened in Wichita Falls, Texas in 2014, treating up to 10 million gallons of wastewater effluent per day for potable use. Even the city of Windhoek in Namibia has been delivering recycled water as tap water since 1968. "When it comes to regulation, there are numerous guidelines and regulations developed in the US and elsewhere which the Maltese public health authorities could have referred to if they were at a loss with regards to the lack of reg- ulations in the EU," Cremona said. "The EU Drinking Water Di- rective is the main potable water regulation in the EU, and it clear- ly states that, 'irrespective of the source', as long as the quality of the water meets the quality standard established by the Directive, it can be used for all domestic purposes, including drinking. I designed a process that meets this EU regula- tion." But the FSC insists that in its de- cision it had to respect the precau- tionary principle as mandated by the Food Safety Act. "The assessment concluded that the risks outweigh the benefits es- pecially when considering that this is a matter of public health and keeping in mind that there are cur- rently several alternative sources of water supply in Malta," the author- ity said. Cremona insists that this last claim "adds insult to injury" and contrasts sharply with the very fact that the Water Services Corpora- tion has just invested €25 million to produce 'new water' as an alter- native source of water to Reverse Osmosis and groundwater extrac- tion. "If there are currently several alternative sources of water, why is the WSC recovering water from sewage?" Responsibility for water In 2009, in its report "Plan for the Use of Treated Sewage Effluent for the Maltese Islands – A National Water Reclamation Project", the WSC concluded that the most eco- nomical use of wastewater was to treat it to potable standards as an alternative to (expensive) seawater reverse osmosis. It was then a conclusion viewed positively by the public health authority at the time. The WSC changed its position in a subsequent report later that year. The FSC also insists that its decision not to licence Cremona's 'HOTER' invention – which prototype was deployed in a Maltese hotel – was determined by Cremona's application to "use treated water for drinking pur- poses." The FSC said that having re- viewed the information provided, as well as the position of the Coun- cil of Health – which had denied Cremona a licence in 2013 –it con- cluded that the proposal "was not acceptable". Cremona insists that his HOTER process for hotels is not intended to produce water for drinking specifi- cally, but for general use in showers as an alternative to the WSC's sup- ply, which converts sea water into potable water through the expen- sive and energy-consuming Reverse Osmosis system. Local regulations specify that any water used in showers and wash- hand basins must meet potable wa- ter standards. "I fully agree with these regula- tions and never contested them… In fact my HOTER process is designed to meet these standards, as con- firmed by independent certifica- tion by e x p e r t s , includ- ing those specifically engaged by the Public Health". MaltaToday also asked the FSC whether it can guarantee that the water coming out of taps and in bottled water is free from "patho- gens and other chemicals that may have a harmful effect on human health" that are "still "unknown and untested by present safety stand- ards". The FSC replied that it's the En- vironmental Health Directorate within the Superintendence of Pub- lic Health that monitors the safety of bottled and tap water, but that suppliers bear the responsibility to ensure the water is free from patho- gens and chemicals harmful to hu- man. New water, double standards Cremona is resigned to seeing the rejection of a licence for his inven- tion as a case of double standards. The FSC approved the use of new water derived from sewage from three polishing plants oper- ated by the Water Services Corpo- ration. On completion, total pro- duction will be to the tune of seven billion litres a year. This water is already being distributed to farmers for free to irrigate their crops in the north of Malta. The use of this water for irriga- tion has been approved subject to a number of conditions which in- clude conformity to relevant legis- lation and an obligation to submit monitoring reports. The FSC has made it clear that it does not support the use of new water for potable drinking water or for industrial use that is "directly or indirectly involved in food manu- facture". But Cremona points out it is more likely for "unknown pathogens" to be present in the 12.5 billion litres of groundwater pumped every year by the WSC for the public water supply – which apart from rain water also contains water seeping from leaking sewers – than from a multi-barrier technological process designed and tested to remove all bacteria and viruses. "One can say that the same risk also applies to water derived from licensed bowser potable water sup- pliers who source their water from boreholes that may be receiving contaminated water from leaking sewers across the country," Cre- mona said. "Even if, for argument's sake, there are unknown pathogens and chem- icals present in the water, the expo- sure of a guest in a hotel in Malta to these 'unknown' pathogens and other chemicals when showering and washing his/her teeth pales into comparison to the thousands of Maltese citizens who are con- tinually exposed to such unknown contaminants and which may be present in their everyday water sup- plies and, in the case of crops irri- gated by new water, in their food." jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Water-scarce Malta needs recycling solution, expert says – but food safety commission disagrees Hydrologist rebuts FSC's opposition to invention that turns treated sewage into water for reuse Marco Cremona contests claims by the FSC that his HOTER system could not safeguard against "unknown pathogens", arguing that the same risk would be present in the 12.5 billion litres of groundwater pumped every year by the WSC for the public water supply which is used for agriculture and domestic use for food tion by