Hello there…welcome to this Month’s entry. We’re thrilled to see this Blog gain following and we urge you to keep the feedback coming.
As promised, February was indeed a busy Month. We’ve launched with over 38 Million Euros worth of Water Projects dedicated to improved Water Management. These compliment the 100 Million Euros worth of project launched by our colleagues from the Water Services Corporation.
The two projects, launched by EWA, are funded by the Cohesion Fund and the LIFE IP Fund respectively. They are tailored to implement Malta’s Water Plan (2nd RBMP), developing an innovative National Water Conservation Campaign to empower all water users to better manage their water demand and develop an improved hydrological monitoring framework to enable the better protection of our natural groundwater resources. The projects will involve 4 other Ministries under the lead of the Energy & Water Agency
We’re at the moment in the process of issuing a set of tenders to get the projects going – with priority being given to the educational components, followed-up by a massive nation-wide water conservation campaign. Its going to be great – we promise!
During February we also had the pleasure to welcome our partners from Gela – the Sicilian City to which we’ll be connected through a Gas Pipeline in the near future. The visit by Domenico Messinese, Mayor of Gela and Simone Siciliano, Deputy Mayor of Gela, served as an important reminder to show that Gas Pipelines aren’t good at transmitting Gas only – but they are also great at bridging communities and neighbouring regions…and this is in fact what happened with Gela and Marsaxlokk signing a letter of intent to trigger collaboration in fields such as culture, youth, tourism and sports. During the visit we also had important meetings with the Heritage Malta, Malta Tourism Authority and the Italian Maltese Chamber of Commerce to trigger further collaboration.
We intend to keep the momentum and remain busy during March. The following are some highlights in terms of whats in store:
- Work will continue on the 2030 Energy and Climate Plan. Its a complex task with an inter-Ministerial effort – yet it will provide a valuable 10 year holistic plan.
- We’d be implementing a Budget Measure whereby low income households will benefit from a replacement of their most inefficient appliance with a brand new A+ appliance. This following a careful audit to 400+ households in collaboration with our partners LEAP. Deliveries of appliances have started and once done we’d effectively have empowered low income households through Energy Efficiency.
- Public consultation on the Gas-Pipeline Project will start in both Malta and Italy (Rome and Palermo).
- We’ll wrap up the month with special events planned on 24 and 25 March 2018 to Celebrate World Water Day. Stay tuned to see what’s planned to happen at GHAJN and Water Services Corporation
So that’s whats up at the Energy and Water Agency. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for further information on what happening this Month!
Daniel