EU LIFE+ water project saves 141,000,000 litres per annum

The EU LIFE+ ‘Investing in Water’ project today announced that it had saved 141,000,000 litres per annum amongst businesses and hotels, which collaborated with the project. The savings were announced at the project's closing event held at the Exchange Buildings in Valletta, attended by 60 representatives from industry and stakeholders.

Amongst the speakers for the event were Konrad Mizzi, minister for energy and the conservation of water, and Leo Brincat, minister for sustainable development and the environment.

Mizzi said that the project was a “good example of management taking direct and independent action to contribute to reducing demand”.

“Results showed that big savings are possible, even in the industry,” he said.

Meanwhile, Brincat said that using resources efficiently will prove beneficial on a national level, and lead to financial savings to the industry.

“It also leads to an innovative and creative way of mapping a new way ahead, one that creates new high quality jobs while ensuring our well-being,” he said.

“These are all concepts of a green economy that require us to reformulate fundamentally the way we produce, consume and live, so that our economic activities do not harm human health, as well as the environment.”

The president of lead partner MBB, George Vella, said that the project “highlighted a strong element of over-design in buildings”, which in turn led to an “excessive consumption”.

“The good news is that retro-fitting to reduce consumption has proved to be cost-effective, and lead to excellent water and financial savings,” he said.

The project identified ‘excessive flow rates’ in showers and wash-hand basins, excessive toilet flushing volumes, rainwater harvesting, and grey and black-water treatment as.

The project carried out audits in 135 enterprises and the amount of water being saved is enough to meet all the needs of ‘two medium-sized four star hotels and three large water-consuming factories’.

“Also, some enterprises are still in the process of planning or implementing water saving measures, and the amount of water saved in the long term is therefore expected to increase further,” he said.

Commenting on the importance of rainwater harvesting for offices and factories, Malta Chamber vice-president Anton Borg said that the project “helped individual enterprises reduce their consumption by 30% through rainwater harvesting.”

“Furthermore, an analysis of all the factories collaborating with the project showed that rainwater could meet the needs of around 50% of industry’s current consumption.”

President of the MHRA and Chief Financial Officer to the Corinthia Group, Paul Bugeja, drew attention to the energy savings on heating made possible by regulating flows on showers and wash-hand basins. He said that the Corinthia Group's hotels in Malta were able to save enough water to irrigate 15,000 trees and as much heating as would be generated by 636 photovoltaic panels.

“The financial benefits are considerable and we strongly encourage hotels that have yet to implement the water saving measures to consider this,” he said.

The report may be downloaded from here.