Over 200 daily tonnes of animal manure need collecting

Malta’s dairy and livestock farms are generating up to 200 metric tonnes of slurry waste every day, necessitating a new strategy to put all this animal excrement, to good use.

The generation of animal manure is so intense, it requires a daily collection with an average of 150-200 metric tonnes of farm solids produced daily from the Sant’Antnin treatment plant, with peak generation reaching 250 metric tonnes a day.

In April 2021, the Sant’Antnin plant started handling slurry waste, the livestock manure stored in farms and disposed of using bowsers.

Most of this slurry hails from cow and pig husbandry. But due to continued discharge of farm waste into Malta’s sewage network, this illegal practice slowed down the setting-up of a dedicated manure and slurry treatment facility.

This practice has, over the years, contributed to the disruption and overload of Malta’s urban wastewater treatment infrastructure, which itself is a breach of EU sewage rules.

After Malta became an EU member, swine and dairy farmers had to modify their traditional rearing systems, which previously involved keeping livestock on solid floors. These had to be changed to separate the animals from their excreta, resulting in better animal welfare and also facilitating cleaning on farms.

Now the Sant’Antnin plant, as well as three mobile units used on farms, de-water the slurry to generate solid waste. The agriculture ministry is seeking operators that will collect farm waste solids to be turned into a bio-resource for reuse in agriculture.

In 2018, a private company – Tenega – had unsuccessfully sought permitting for a manure processing plant in Xlendi, as a solution to the problem of farms in Gozo spreading untreated manure on agricultural land.

The practice contains high levels of nitrates on fields, is endangering the water table, and if farmers discharge the waste into the sewage system, it can clog sewage treatment plants.

But objectors had said the truckloads of manure would be driven through the centre of the village of Munxar, expressing fears about the odours of the transport slurry.