Sunday, 7th September 2008

Bid to crack down on borehole drilling

Herman Grech

The Resources Ministry will be presenting proposals to Cabinet in the coming days in a bid to crack down on the illegal and unsustainable level of borehole drilling, The Sunday Times has learnt.

It is still not known what measures will be recommended to tackle a major problem which has been ignored by the authorities for many years.

Figures provided by the ministry in reply to a series of questions are alarming: the current abstraction level of groundwater is around 30 million cubic metres a year, seven million cubic metres more than the sustainable yield. Over half of Malta's tap water (57 per cent) is now derived from the reverse osmosis plants.

"Further policy and enforcement measures to counter illegal drilling are being discussed by the ministry. A memo is being prepared which will hopefully lead to consideration and a decision by Cabinet. In the circumstances, it is not prudent to speculate on the final outcome," the spokesman said.

Hydrologist Marco Cremona, however, believes the ministry is downplaying the gravity of the situation by inflating the sustainable yield figures and lowering abstraction levels.

In answer to a parliamentary question last year, former Resources Minister Ninu Zammit said that water abstraction by the Water Services Corporation was 15 million cubic metres, while illegal abstraction was 18.5 million cubic metres.

"So unless the WSC has drastically reduced its abstraction rate, I'm inclined to think that the more recent numbers are incorrect. I think illegal practices have increased as evidenced by the scores of bowsers on the road. I would like to know how the Malta Resources Authority is estimating illegal abstraction," Mr Cremona said.

Mr Cremona said that since it was impossible to obtain a licence for the drilling of a borehole, any water drilling rigs should be seized. Anybody wishing to drill should obtain a licence from the MRA and then engage the WSC to carry out the drilling.

Increasing the water tariffs (as the government is expected to do when it revises the system next month) without controlling illegal extraction of groundwater is suicidal, according to Mr Cremona. Any increase in tariffs would invariably lead to the drilling of more boreholes.

"Since the surcharge increase, I've personally been approached by individuals and industrial concerns who want to reactivate their borehole or drill a new one. This is also a threat to public health. Groundwater supplies can be contaminated and can come into contact with humans, especially when used as a substitute to potable water, such as swimming pools."

Unlike several other countries, Malta's groundwater is the only natural source of fresh water. As an EU member, Malta also has to abide with the EU Water Framework Directive that stipulates the need for cost recovery of water services by 2010. This essentially means that all subsidies will have to stop.

Calculated on a per-capita basis, Malta is the ninth thirstiest country in the world. The dependence on reverse osmosis water has been increasing year after year, in order to compensate for the consistent deterioration in the quality of groundwater supplies.

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 8, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Nik Grech (on 9/9/08)

Malta’s water table has been damaged more by the construction industry than by anything else. For example, rain water used to remain flowing through Wied il-Ghasel valley in Mosta till end of June, with the cave under Speranza chapel often being completely flooded. In those days (pre-1970s), the valley was surrounded with fields and rainwater seeped gradually through them to the water table and the remaining seeped through springs and cracks SLOWLY to the valley.

Today buildings reached both sides of the valley, rainwater soon finds itself on the asphalted roads, bypasses the water table, and goes directly to the valley with great force causing great damage to the valley’s vegetation. Today, springs in this valley have all gone dry.

It’s a pity that the valley was never protected with at least a 1km buffer zone on both of its sides /banks and it’s an even greater pity that everyone seems to neglect the importance of this valley.

GEORGE CACHIA (on 9/9/08)

The uncontrolled drilling of boreholes and subsequent extraction of water thus further depleting the water table are facts that no one can deny. A possible solution is to replenish the water table by creating reservoirs that are not waterproofed on the bottom. Thus water will perculate down to the bed rock. In order not to ruin any of our beautiful valleys, government could construct such reservoirs under roads along which water is known to gather and eventually run off to the sea. Rock cutting equipment is plentiful and relatively cheap enough in Malta and we could end up with decent road surfaces as a side-kick from the project. EU funds may be available for such projects that ease off on our environmentally expensive RO plants.

D Delia (on 8/9/08)

Unfortunately illegal boreholes are hidden cunningly. It’s impossible to knock on each residence, farm or a factory blindly and conduct a search for a borehole. It will never work. Once the alarm is off, boreholes will be concealed even more.
However there is way authorities should try out, by comparing the consumption of water bills to a benchmark. Perhaps it gives an indication where a borehole might exist after cracking down on water bowser suppliers.

A Bezzina (on 7/9/08)

@Rio Sammut. Thanks for the compliment but, the management of storm water is not a simple issue and should not be considered a solution to our Island's water problem, however, letting everything run down to the sea is a sin. Mr Marco Cremona has studied the quality of rain water run off from urban areas and if I remember correctly he had found not insignificant levels of undesirable contaminants. There still remains a vast source of relatively safer second class water from building's rooftop rain water runoff or well overflow which unfortunately does not, and cannot be all saved. I strongly believe that local communal reservoirs for this run off would be a valuable source of second hand water which can be redistributed to the local community for toilet flushes, garden irrigation and some washing duties. Multiple areas in each community should be identified. In Valletta the reservoirs are already there but we have to convert them into a display area for the St John's Cathedral museum!

jimmy magro (on 7/9/08)

Il lallu again?
I thought this was in place since 1988 !!
When the PM says that we are facing enormous threats from overseas, does Cabinet have nothing to do except looking into boreholes?

Rio Sammut (on 7/9/08)

Mr.Bezzina is right. If all storm water were collected in reservoirs instead of allowing it to run into the sea, there would be enough water for everyone, maybe even shutting down the expensive and energy wasteful ro plants!
Why are thousands, if not millions, of tons or fresh rainwater allowed to run into the sea every year??? How long is it going to take for the responsable authorities to realise that fresh water is more precious to us than gold, and we cannot afford to be so stupidly wasteful anymore?

Nigel Lawrence (on 7/9/08)

I heard all this before. Still nothing will be done.

The illegal water sellers even advertise in the yellow pages.

"Crackdown"- blah blah blah. Plenty talk but no-one to tackle the problem.

A Bezzina (on 7/9/08)

After the Maltese limestone crust has been perforated like Swiss cheese with bore holes, cracking down on further drilling is NOT going to improve the unsustainable extraction rate from the free-for-all that has prevailed till the present. Neither will the water table ever be usable again, thanks to procrustinating in implementing the necessary water policy changes and storm water managment plans. And please, when the new water tarifs come up soon, I do not want to here of 30000 households being exempt from paying up unless thier free water is a capped amount, and the rest is paid for like the rest of us.

chris mallia (on 7/9/08)

yes there are a lot of illegal water boreholes in Gozo some of them selling tens of bawsers full of water everyday to fill pools,for irrigation in fields and so many other things with no vat paid they even supply water for the irrigation of round-abouts and the fire-engine dept

Joanne Micallef (on 7/9/08)

Knowing for a fact for our country how precious water is and will be especially in the coming years I'm glad to finally read that the Goverment has finally decided to crack down on illegal boreholes. Let us hope that justice will be equal for all.

Bid to crack down on borehole drilling

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