The Water Corporation has issued a call for tenders for this ambitious project costing €100 million, a project that will be implemented in phases over the next four years. The Minister for Energy and Water, Joe Mizzi, said this project will lead to a quality of tap water that will equal that of Nordic countries.
Siġġiewi, Żebbug and Qrendi will be the first three localities that will be provided with better quality water supplies. The Minister said this ambitious project will commence from these areas.
The call for tenders issued by the Corporation is for changes ranging over 45 kilometres of water mains on an investment of €10 million, part of an overall investment of €100 million to improve water quality and supply. He said the first phase of the project is expected to be completed over the next 18 months.
The Corporation’s CEO Richard Bilocca said that apart from new mains, the project will undertake radical changes in the processing of potable water reaching households.
Bilocca said water is currently being taken from one source but the project will take a new blend from Qrendi while water from boreholes in the area will be conveyed to the reservoir and this will enable better utilisation of the boreholes. He explained the blend will be made by an automatic system that controls the uptake of water according to its salinity.
He said the system will identify boreholes that are not functioning properly and these will be automatically switched off and will be replaced from other sources while water from reverse osmosis plants will be blended with required amounts with groundwater and this will enable a decreased use of chemicals.
Minister Mizzi assured TVM the Water Services Corporation will work in close collaboration with the Infrastructure Ministry so that trenching works for new mains installations will not create road havoc.
He said a new Transport Ministry Law ensure coordination regarding how the works will be carried out, when and on which roads, as well as pipe-laying and the infrastructure in general.
