Tuesday, 7th October 2008 - 20:15CET
Government announces measures to protect the water table
The government has published legal notices providing that no new boreholes may be drilled for ground water extraction and all boreholes which have not been already registered with the authorities have to be registered within a month.
Resources Minister George Pullicino said Malta needed to protect its ground water and give the water table time to recharge itself. It was estimated that ground water would be sustainable if extraction did not exceed 23 million cubic metres annually, yet that number was being exceeded by 11 million cubic metres every year.
He warned that all those who did not register their boreholes within a month would be liable for a fine of between €9,300 and €18,600 in terms of a law enacted in 1997. Registering a borehole did not mean an automatic right to extract groundwater, the minister said.
Furthermore, no new boreholes may be drilled without prior permission from the Malta Resources Authority.
For the time being, however, no new permits would be granted until the situation was assessed and the water table was allowed to re-establish itself.
Anyone drilling boreholes illegally would be liable for a fine of between €20,000 and €50,000 and equipment would be confiscated.
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Please don't panic - let's all agree that this is a blessing. If the you want to put up a meter - ok - do it - if it gets expensive we just close it down and we get our veg from the EU.
The yearly recharge into the mean sea level aquifer is around 12cm per year. This is because, rainwater is lost by evaporation, by valleys leading to the sea and transpiration. Moreover, a disturbed aquifer needs centuries to re-establish equilibrium; as far as I know, it takes around 300 - 500 years!
Its better late than never
That should have been issued more than ten years ago! As things stand, the yearly recharge is not enough to sustain the amount of water being pumped from the mean sea level aquifers. As far as I know, the limit is 45% of the yearly recharge.
For the information of the public, the mean sea level aquifer, is a body of fresh water in the form of a lens which floats on salty water. Contrary to the belief of many, the origin of this water, is rainwater, that precolated through the ground from past rain. Excessive pumping by inexperienced people, can ruin the very delicate balance and cause upconing of the brackish water which lies under the freshwater lens.
The mean sea level aquifer is a common good: Government you have the duty to protect it from selfish explotation.
Second point is that everytime it rains, a lot of rain water is wasted to the sea. Is there going to be any project to collect this water and then used elswere? Today one can easily do an underground reservior with the type of machinery we have.
It is a shame that to drink suitable water it has to be bought in PLASTIC BOTTLES!!!