Saturday, 11th October 2008 - 16:33CET

Borehole registration is 11 years too late - MLP

Labour infrastructure spokesman Charles Buhagiar said today that the government decision to register all boreholes was welcome, but this initiative was 11 years too late.

Such a scheme was launched by a Labour government in 1997 but no monitoring was made on new drilling in the following years, he said, and hundreds of illegal boreholes had been drilled since.

Such lack on control on groundwater extraction had severely depleted the water table, to the extent that it was now endangered, Mr Buhagiar said.

The risk, however, was that with an increase in water tariffs, groundwater extraction would actually increase. Before increasing such tariffs, the government should come up with a scheme to distribute second-class water to farms, thus using the output of the sewage purification plants, Mr Buhagiar said,

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 22, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

victor vella (on 11/10/08)

I wonder if Perit Buhagiar is aware that any veg watered with 2 nd class water from the sewage treatment plant is foul tasting and would go bad after two days.I can supply him with such veg any time he likes to prove this point

e. bartolo (on 11/10/08)

The water table needs about 3 to 5 centuries to recover from the shock of excessive water extraction. Tackling this important issue after so many years of negligence, is definitely not "taking the bull by its horns"! This limited and delicate resource is the property of everyone! The government has the duty to protect it!

carmen caruana (on 11/10/08)

@F.farrugia
where do you think EU brought us, in heaven?? After those years of membership now we're being able why there was a harsh opposition against EU, they just brought us in total capitalism i.e in total collapse!!

F Farrugia (on 11/10/08)

Maybe the PN were too busy fighting the MLP to gain EU membership - or was that 5 years too early for the MLP?? 11 years too late to register boreholes is a small price to pay for full EU membership - don't you think? With hindsight of course!

Charles Micallef (on 11/10/08)

Forget political clap trap, this is one of those issues, along with regaining public land and many other outstanding issues that many of us were yearning for and should have been actioned many years since, but gaining votes and power was more important to some than implementing the law of the land!

Martin Galea (on 11/10/08)

"Have you even read the article". Do you think that I was going to answer you in the negative? Sorry, you await in vain. I wrote regarding the article, becuase I was annoyed at the constant shooting down of anything good, in one way or another. I was also of the school of thought where if you don't have anything constructive to say, then shut up. In this case I happen to be not very impressed when politicians just get up and say, "oh well done, but you should have done it when I told you so". Sour grapes, and what in my industry, we call, 'but your dog is dirty' syndrome, i.e., never being satisfied, and always trying to have the last word, or attempting to show that despite what is being done, that you are the better chap, had the better idea, and generally try to blow your own trumpet. I would never have said anything if the politician had said "well done".

Lewis Attard (on 11/10/08)

@Martin Galea
Taking action after many long years of irreparable damage to the water table is not "taking the bull by the horns". It's more like "wakey, wakey" or "about flippi' time".

michael zammit (on 11/10/08)

@ Martin Galea .Charles Buhagiar welcomed the decision taken , late as it may be.

Victor Grech (on 11/10/08)

@ Martin Galea
Have you even read the piece? More specifically the part where it says "the government decision to register all boreholes was welcome"? If so, how did you come to the conclusion that what was being said was that the scheme shouldn't have been done in the first place? And you're talking about Maltese gemgem

I Abela (on 11/10/08)

@ Martin Galea - MLP WELCOMED the initiative but stated it was 11 years late. May I ask you, learned blogger, where did you see a suggestion by MLP that it should have never been done?

Martin Galea (on 11/10/08)

Are the learned opposition politicians suggesting that just because it's taken a long time; it should never have been done at all?? For the love of all that's holy. What a bunch of maltese gemgem!

Look, just be happy that however late a juncture it is, at least somebody is grabbing the bull by the horns, and doing something about a heck of a lot of things. I for one don't care at the moment about the wherefore and why, and am just ecstatic that it's being done at all!! Well done to the powers that be! Keep at it, and don't lose heart.

Borehole registration is 11 years too late - MLP

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