Around 80 families identified through Caritas will benefit from a number of interventions in their household to improve their water consumption and identify issues, in order to reduce the final bill and therefore leaving more money in the pockets of these vulnerable households.
Through a Memorandum of Understanding with Caritas Malta, the Energy and Water Agency will collaborate on a project that will see around 80 vulnerable families benefitting from works and interventions within their households to improve their water conservation. These interventions vary from refitting of water outlets, to leakage identification and appliance replacement, with investment reaching the €5,000 for some cases.
The vulnerable families, that will be identified through Caritas Malta will receive a visit to assess the current consumption of the household and identify recommendations of possible improvements.
The Agency will then monitor the savings and gather data on the improvements made within the household. Through this data gathering of the effects on these measures, EWA will be in a better position to identify which of these measures are the most effective and leave the best positive impact, to be able to promote similar measures in the future.
During the signing of the MOU, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable said that this social initiative will help the most vulnerable families to not be left behind, whilst also helping improve efficient use of water resources. This initiative has come about after the publication of the Caritas study entitled ‘A Minimum Essential Budget for a Decent Living 2020’.
Caritas Malta Director Anthony Gatt welcomed this initiative, that will lead to less expenses in the daily life of these vulnerable households, whilst also contributing to a better environment.