In August 2018, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that Malta's Water Services Corporation had invited bids for a reverse osmosis facility in Hondoq Bay, Gozo. The €10 million contract covered design, construction, testing and commissioning of a 9,000 m³/day facility near Qala, on the site of a disused 1960s desalination plant. Bids were due by 18 September 2018. The Qala local council called for a full environmental impact assessment, since the brine could threaten Posidonia oceanica seagrass.
The report showed that Mediterranean desalination projects were then increasingly judged on environmental issues such as brine discharge and seagrass protection, even when they reused existing sites.