Reverse Osmosis & Water Treatment in Malta
The Maltese Archipelago is located in the central part of the Mediterranean Sea about 90 kilometers (km) south of Sicily (Italy), 300 km east of Tunisia and 350 km north of Libya. It consists of 3 main islands, Malta, Gozo, and Comino and some islets (Cominotto, Filfla) without inhabitants.
Water Resources
Despite the relatively low rainfall and the arid appearance of the Maltese Islands, local catchment characteristics are very favorable for the storage of rainwater and the hydrological cycle provides a generous supply of freshwater which undoubtedly contributed to the early settlement of the inhabitants.
Surface Water Resources
Total surface water resources are estimated at 0.5 million cubic meters per year (m3/year). Structurally, Malta tilts gently to the east giving rise to a topography that is high along the western shores and gently slopes down to sea level along the eastern shores. This implies that the surface drainage lines cross the entire width of the island from their source close to the western shore before reaching the sea on the east. This favorable topography, combined with the good water storage capacity of the soil, excellent infiltration characteristics and effective runoff interception by numerous dams and cisterns, gives the surface water maximum time to seep into the ground and thus minimizes runoff losses to the sea. A greater amount of surface runoff, however, is lost from urban areas via sewers or directly to the sea especially in coastal towns and villages. Attempts are in hand to tackle the storm water wastage problem for a more effective use of surface runoff.
Groundwater Resources
The renewable groundwater potential on the Maltese Islands is estimated as being approximately 40 million m3/year. In order not to deplete the storage capacity of the main aquifer without causing salt water intrusion, only 15 million m3/year of groundwater would be potentially extractable. Based on the 1995 figures of the Water Services Corporation, however, 19.75 million m3/year were extracted from 13 pumping stations, approximately 160 boreholes in Malta and Gozo, and about 2,800 registered private wells (the latter extracting an estimated total of 2.44 million m3/year). This means that groundwater depletion does in fact take place. Moreover, there is significant extraction from illegal and unregistered wells (probably up to 2.97 million m3/year), leading to a total groundwater extraction of 22.72 million m3/year.
Desalinated Water and Treated Wastewater
At present 31.4 million m3/year of desalinated water are being produced from four sea water Reverse Osmosis Plants and one brackish water Reverse Osmosis Plant, but this is a rather expensive procedure. In 1993, of the total produced wastewater estimated at 23.7 million m3, about 1.82 million m3 was treated and 1.56 million m3 of this was reused.
The World Bank reports that at least 80 countries have water shortages and 2 billion people lack access to clean water. More disturbingly, the World Health Organization has reported that 1 billion people lack enough water to simply meet their basic needs, unfortunately in many countries water is scarce or contaminated.
Since Malta has no surface water like rivers, lakes or reservoirs, Maltese has to get its fresh water from other resources. Malta's tap water resources are desalinated sea water that has been treated and desalinated by the process of reverse osmosis. Malta has few desalination plants by reverse osmosis technology.
Pure Aqua provides wide range of filtration and economical solutions based on the Malta's water resources.
Malta's main water resources are:
- Surface water is water from river, lake or fresh water wetland, which can be treated using different methods, such as Ultrafiltration Systems, Brackish Water RO.
- Desalination can be used for water from ocean, or sea source, which can be treated using Seawater Reverse Osmosis Systems; Desalination Systems.
- Ground Water or brackish water is from water located in the pore space of soil and rock “Borehole well”, which can be treated using Reverse Osmosis Systems, Chemical Dosing, UV Water Sterilizers.
- Government water supply, which could have high level of hardness or high level of chlorine, can be treated with Water Softener Systems, Media Water Filters.
Pure Aqua manufactures water treatment systems to countries like Malta that meet the World Health Organization requirements.
Pure Aqua has over 20 years of experience as a global provider of B2B water treatment solutions for a variety of applications and industries, we offer a large selection of all types of reverse osmosis and water treatment systems to meet your industrial needs. Pure Aqua’s extensive global experience in engineering and manufacturing allows us to pre-engineer and customize water treatment and reverse osmosis systems to meet a wide range of customer requirements and specifications.
Completed Water Purification Projects for Malta:
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