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Good practice Imported

Malta's New Water Programme — Treated-Effluent Irrigation for Farmers (Ta' Barkat & Sant'Antnin)

Malta · Xgħajra · See the Malta profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 76% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Malta's national utility treats sewage at Ta' Barkat and Sant'Antnin into 'New Water' for roughly 2,000 hectares of farmland, cutting groundwater abstraction. A 2023 EU-co-financed expansion added 6,000 m³/day of capacity for about 350 more farmers.

1.5-1.6 million m3/year
New Water production (2023-2024)
~2,000 hectares
Irrigated agricultural land served
EUR24.5 million
2023 EU-co-financed expansion cost
20,000+ m3/day
Target production by 2028

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Water Services Corporation (WSC), Malta
Period
2011–present (New Water polishing plant since 2018; south Malta expansion 2023–2028)
Region (NUTS)
MT001
Keywords
water reuse, agriculture, irrigation, groundwater protection

Context

Malta's Water Services Corporation (WSC) treats around 60,000 m3 of sewage a day -- about 80% of the country's wastewater -- at the Ta' Barkat plant in Xghajra, fed by pre-treatment works at Sant'Antnin. Since a New Water polishing facility opened at Ta' Barkat in 2018, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis upgrade effluent to a quality safe for crop irrigation.

Results

New Water production reached 1.5-1.6 million m3 a year in 2023-2024, delivered through a 70 km network to roughly 2,000 hectares of registered agricultural land, including 800 hectares on Gozo. A EUR24.5 million expansion, co-financed by the EU under the EAFRD rural-development programme, added 6,000 m3/day of capacity in 2023, extending the network to roughly 350 additional farmers and 223 hectares.

Conclusions

Because agriculture accounts for about 76% of Malta's groundwater use, the programme is framed as working toward 'net zero impact' on the island's water cycle. WSC's stated targets are more than 20,000 m3/day of production by 2028 and, at full build-out, 7 million m3 a year -- covering roughly 35% of Malta's total agricultural water demand.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Water Services Corporation (WSC)

Conditions for success

  • ultrafiltration and reverse-osmosis polishing to irrigation-safe quality
  • EU EAFRD co-financing for network expansion
  • 70 km distribution network reaching registered farmers

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes ERDF — European Regional Development Fund

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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