Reverse osmosis plants will be upgraded to produce more water with less energy, Energy and Water Minister Joe Mizzi told Parliament on Tuesday.

The idea is to reduce groundwater extraction to just 30 per cent of what is required.

During a debate on the financial estimates for the Water Services Corporation, Mizzi said that this would act to preserve Malta's aquifers while improving the taste of tap water.

The modernisation of the Pembroke plant, Malta’s largest, would double the amount of water produced there while saving almost €500,000 a year in energy costs.

A new reverse osmosis plant at Ħondoq ir-Rummien, Gozo, would give Gozo water independence and better quality.

Opposition MP David Agius criticised the fact that the WSC Annual Report had not been tabled in advance of the debate, arguing that it was impossible to argue concretely without access to this document.

Agius said explanations needed to be given as to how electricity and water bills were being calculated. The government had promised to review the system four months ago b ut nothing has come to be, he said.  

He questioned why there was this procrastination, arguing that, if the rate according to which water bills were computed depended on annual consumption, there should be a clear indication of the start and end of the base year for this computation.

Mizzi replied that bills were being calculated in the same way that they had been calculated during PN administrations, adding that a Nationalist government had changed the legal notice regulating the calculations of these bills to allow meter readings to take place every two months.