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By\u00a0Hermann Micallef\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An ambitious\u00a0water recycling\u00a0project, which is\u00a0not only\u00a0feasible\u00a0but also\u00a0needed in Malta, was cold shouldered by the Public Health authorities without a concrete\u00a0and\u00a0valid\u00a0reason being given.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In an interview with Voice of the Workers,\u00a0Engineer and\u00a0hydrologist Marco Cremona,\u00a0the brains behind this project, expressed his disappointment and frustration\u00a0at, after years of toil, having\u00a0the project\u00a0knocked down by\u00a0officials\u00a0of\u00a0the Department of Public Health\u00a0without\u00a0a\u00a0word on\u00a0why it was being refused\u00a0point blank.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Marco Cremona is alleging that the authorities\u00a0were taken aback by his innovative and creative project and would have preferred\u00a0it if the\u00a0idea\u00a0had been\u00a0put forward by a professional or academic from another country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Engineer Cremona\u00a0spoke about the history of this project and the disappointments\u00a0he experienced\u00a0along the way. He explained that the project aim\u00a0was\u00a0to recycle the water\u00a0used by hotels. Malta is chock full of hotels and they\u00a0consume a great deal of water. Marco Cremona explained that the project works and\u00a0it\u00a0works\u00a0so\u00a0well\u00a0that it\u00a0was technologically proven that it could recycle up to 90% of the water used by a hotel. For the initiative to work, the hotel would need to buy in the remaining 10%. Each drop would be used ten times before it\u00a0went\u00a0out of the system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Marco Cremona\u00a0explained that this project comprises three phases of water treatment. The first phase involves a plant that purifies\u00a0the sewage to produce second class water, that is, water that is not\u00a0fit for drinking\u00a0but can be used to flush toilets and for irrigation. \u201cThis process will yield more water than is needed and this water\u00a0is\u00a0not wasted but\u00a0is\u00a0passed through another process\u00a0that will yield water that is\u00a0fit for drinking, although in a hotel this water is not usually used for drinking but is used in showers,\u201d said Marco Cremona, adding that, \u201cquality standards and the regulations call for the water used in showers to be of drinking water quality.\u201d The process, as implemented by Engineer Cremona, makes this technically possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Marco Cremona explained that he had obtained\u00a0\u20ac109,000\u00a0funding from the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) to carry out research.\u00a0With these funds he built\u00a0a prototype that he operated at the Radisson Golden Sands hotel from 2008 to 2009. The Engineer did not\u00a0embark on\u00a0this project alone. He teamed up with German specialists who provided the technology, Island Group who offered their site as a testing site and the Department of Public Health.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe project was\u00a0so\u00a0successful that it was featured on the television station Al-Jazeera\u201d, said Marco Cremona,\u00a0who added\u00a0that he had entered the project in an international\u00a0competition on the CNBC Business Channel. \u201cI was one of three finalists for a\u00a0\u20ac250,000\u00a0prize\u00a0and the competition was aired worldwide through this international television station\u201d, said Cremona.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Engineer explained how he\u00a0had developed a business plan which called for a commercial installation in Malta before the project is launched on an international level. \u201cThis\u00a0was\u00a0so I would have control over the project in Malta as it\u00a0would be\u00a0easy to\u00a0oversee, confirm that all is in order and, should I need to tweak something, I could tweak it\u201d, said Cremona,\u00a0who added, \u201cI would be able to use it as a showcase so that I would have something to show to foreign investors should they come over.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Subsequently, from 2011\u00a0to\u00a02012, Marco Cremona\u00a0secured Environment Action funds; funds that are administered by Malta Enterprise. He used these funds to finance a commercial plant. Marco Cremona built the plant, tested it and found that it worked well. This is when\u00a0he started discussions with the\u00a0Department of Public Health to secure the permit to use the water. He also signed a contract with the\u00a0Seabank\u00a0hotel which was ready to pay him for the water he produced. In fact,\u00a0this commercial plant was and still is at the\u00a0Seabank\u00a0hotel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u00a0started contacting people about the\u00a0necessary\u00a0permits,\u00a0doors started\u00a0being\u00a0shut in my face,\u201d said Marco Cremona. Asked to\u00a0elaborate, Engineer Cremona brought up the example of a borehole where one sells water to a bowser as water which is of drinking quality. \u201cThe process is quite simple as all you have to do is fill out a two-page application, take a sample of the water to the laboratory and, if the results show that it is fit for drinking, you are given the licence\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As one of the partners of the\u00a0research\u00a0project\u00a0was the Department of Public Health\u00a0and,\u00a0because this circumstance\u00a0was\u00a0outside\u00a0the\u00a0norm,\u00a0Marco Cremona wanted to initiate discussions with the officials of the Department about the testing of\u00a0the\u00a0water. He said that in six years, from 2012 to date,\u00a0he\u00a0has met with various Superintendents of Public Health, with the directors of Environmental Health and with\u00a0several\u00a0Ministers. The first reaction was that,\u00a0if he were to use this water, his first obligation would be to inform the guests of the hotel that the water is recycled. \u201cThis was discriminatory as no hotel in Malta has the obligation to tell its guests where the water\u00a0it uses\u00a0is coming from \u2026 as long as the water quality meets the standards set by Public Health and Maltese law,\u00a0which is the same as European law, the water can be used,\u00a0whatever its source\u201d, said Cremona.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Asked to explain why he thinks\u00a0he has come across so many obstacles, Marco Cremona said that he does not think that the reasons are\u00a0either personal or political. After he\u00a0lodged a\u00a0number of judicial protests and after struggling to implement this project, Engineer Cremona said that he has reached the conclusion that,\u00a0although the idea he has developed is innovative for Malta\u00a0and backed up by the European Commission, the Health Department was too\u00a0taken aback by it\u00a0and may have felt that it was unfortunate that this idea\u00a0had\u00a0originated\u00a0in\u00a0Malta.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI cannot find any\u00a0other reason\u00a0why this has happened\u201d, said Marco Cremona, adding that,\u00a0\u201cI do not know how often I tested and tried the water, invited officials from the Public Health Department to come to the hotel to test what they wanted,\u00a0when they wanted,\u00a0but they never accepted my invitation\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Over and above this, Engineer Cremona paid for independent certification\u00a0by independent consultants so that the project is verified by outsiders. Officials from the Department of Public Health commissioned a risk assessment report that verified that the plant produced good quality water. In spite of all this, six years\u00a0on, Engineer Cremona is still without a permit to\u00a0operate the plant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA\u00a0Superintendent of Public Health told me\u00a0\u2018why don\u2019t you just take your idea to Germany\u2019?\u201d Marco Cremona said that,\u00a0\u201cwith this idea we could have been at the forefront of technology that is now being introduced all over the world\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cremona listed various absurd excuses that he was given by the Public Health authorities. \u201cThey told me that they were not going to give me a permit because Malta has a number of alternative sources of water! \u2026 as an activist in the field of water not only is this a frivolous excuse but it is an excuse that\u00a0rubs\u00a0salt into\u00a0the wound when they tell me in writing that Malta has a number of alternative sources of water\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Engineer Cremona\u00a0has arrived at a cross roads: either take Government to court for damages because of the waste of time and\u00a0expense, or\u00a0call it a day. \u201cI\u00a0have\u00a0decided to\u00a0close shop\u00a0because I have lost\u00a0all\u00a0motivation\u201d,\u00a0concluded Engineer Cremona in a tone of great disappointment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By\u00a0Hermann Micallef\u00a0 An ambitious\u00a0water recycling\u00a0project, which is\u00a0not only\u00a0feasible\u00a0but also\u00a0needed in Malta, was cold shouldered by the Public Health authorities without a concrete\u00a0and\u00a0valid\u00a0reason being given.\u00a0 In an interview with Voice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1115,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[50],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1119"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1135,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1119\/revisions\/1135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cWhen I started contacting people about the necessary permits, doors started\u00a0being\u00a0shut in my face.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n
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“Engineer Cremona is still without\u00a0a permit to\u00a0implement his idea.\u00a0“<\/span><\/h1>\n
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