Caroline Muscat
Bottlers explain their use of groundwater
* Mains water is billed at €1.40 p/m3 while water extracted from the aquifer is free.
Leading beverage company General Soft Drinks has admitted that free groundwater forms around half of the mix in its bottled water, but said its product was subjected to several treatment processes at the company's new multi-million euro plant before being sold to the public.
Farsons, meanwhile, said it paid for the water it used for its bottled water and non-carbonated drinks. Rather than sourcing its water from the underground aquifer, it uses mains water, which means the water already meets safety standards before it goes through further processes of treatment.
After The Sunday Times revealed last week that some bottlers are extracting millions of litres of free water annually from the public underground aquifer, it visited bottling plants and contacted major bottlers, asking about their production and treatment processes (refer to table).
General Soft Drinks said its bottled water, Kristal, was a mix of roughly equal proportions of mains water and borehole water.
The boreholes are located at the company's old plant in Qormi and the water extracted is transported by means of a pipeline. The same blend of water is also used for the production of all the company's locally-produced non-carbonated drinks, including Coca Cola and Sprite.
Two companies rely completely on the underground aquifer as a source for bottled water: Nibe Beverages, which produces Gocce and Aquani in 19-litre refillable bottles, and Aquatess Marketing for its Aqua Azzurra brand. The water undergoes treatment processes to meet required standards.
All three companies using underground aquifer defended their use of free public water. Speaking to The Sunday Times, General Soft Drinks general manager Maria Micallef acknowledged that the company was extracting public reserves for free, but said "the company makes no profit on the water".
She added that if General Soft Drinks had to import the water, 30 employees would be made redundant and the company would spend €6 million abroad instead of ploughing the money into local economy.
"We have invested around €12 million in the bottling process, which has high annual running costs, to ensure our products are of the highest quality and in line with legislation. Ten employees are dedicated directly to the quality assurance of our product and an additional 25 are directly employed for the production of Kristal water," Ms Micallef said.
Farsons produces three brands of bottled water - San Michel, Aquadot and Elan - as well as soft drinks such as Kinnie and Pepsi.
Farsons Group chief executive Louis Farrugia said: "All the original source of the water used in these brands and the packaged water (we also package water for two supermarket chains) is from the government town water supply. One just cannot refer to the finished product as 'tap water' since considerable cost and value is added to purify the water. On San Michel's website we declare the analysis and how we purify the water."
Mr Farrugia said the company extracted water from three wells free of charge but the water was "used exclusively for cleaning purposes".
"Our purchase price (for mains water) covers all the Water Services Corporation (WSC)'s costs and we have made representations that this high cost impedes our competitiveness... so no way is the Farsons Group making large profits from the sale of water products," Mr Farrugia added.
Mains water is billed at €1.40 per cubic metre. According to the most recent KPMG report, the cost for WSC for the production of water from reverse osmosis plants is €1.38 per cubic metre. Therefore, those bottlers relying on mains water - which also include the brands Fontana and H2Only - cover the production costs of mains water while those companies taking water from the underground aquifer free themselves of charges and tariffs levied by government.
A statement issued by the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) two days ago confirmed the problems resulting from a lack of regulation: "Salinity is high in the major aquifers because of over-abstraction, while nitrates are steadily increasing everywhere. Some of the perched aquifers have been completely decommissioned from the public supply as nitrates exceed the EU limit by more than three times."
The MRA said recent economic developments lead to additional pressure on groundwater: "Irrigated agriculture, the processing industry, commercial enterprise, and the high-end domestic sector make use of groundwater in an unregulated manner."
The registration of boreholes started in 1997. Twelve years later, the MRA is still saying there is insufficient information to enforce regulation and the target for that is 2015. Last year, the government set a one-year moratorium on the drilling of new boreholes.
Eleven million cubic metres of water are over-pumped from the aquifers annually so the WSC is obliged to place more reliance on desalinated water to meet domestic water requirements. More than 57 per cent of mains water is produced by reverse osmosis, which is four times more costly than groundwater and drives up the cost for household use.
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11 Comments
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Emmanuel Caruana
Apr 9th 2009, 11:29
@Chris Finch
I cannot believe how some people think in that way. Is because of some kind of jealousy? As long as their boreholes are registered, and they are paying any fees (if there are any) implied by the authority, they are not doing anything wrong. Everyone can apply for a borehole even yourself Mr Flinch. So my advice to you is apply for a borehole and boil that water instead of tap water.
Arguments like that company is doing millions of profit etc etc are so babyish. Before you speak in that way, have you ever considered how many people are employed by these companies? How many people are making money due as they have shares in these companies? You will never know maybe your company you are working with today (unless you are self employed) has shares within one of the companies mentioned in this article. If one of these companies will make loses as a result the company you are working with will make loses as well
Furthermore companies producing bottled water are not just boiling the water. There is a whole process to treat water. They have done lot of investment
Marco Cremona
Apr 5th 2009, 22:52
I am simply amazed at how this bit of information published by the Sunday Times is actually NEWS.
Doesn't everybody know that groundwater is being extracted for free by all-and-sundry? Where does agriculture get its water from? Where do animal farms get their water from? Where do the tens of bowsers filling hotels' reservoirs get their water from? Where do the bowsers irrigating our roundabouts in mid-summer get their water from? Where does industry get its water from? Where do swimming pool owners get their water from?
It is unfair to pick on the bottlers.
Don't we know that we have been over-extracting our aquifers since the 1970s? Didn't government know that increasing the water tariffs without first curbing the illegal extraction of groundwater is utter madness? Isn't it obvious that the incentive to pump more free water from the ground will increase if you double the tariff on town-water?
Don't we have an authority (sic) that is supposed to be regulating this abuse? What has the Malta Resources Authority done since its setting up 5 years ago? What have they delivered? How much groundwater have they saved?
The Maltese taxpayer and future generations demand an explanation. Heads should roll
Jean-Pierre Aquilina
Apr 5th 2009, 19:49
"the company makes no profit on the water".
Hmmm...a non-profit organisation maybe?
Eugenio Taliana
Apr 5th 2009, 19:48
So, due to the fact, that some people (exact number not known) extract underground water illegally, water for household use becomes very expensive - why doesn't the government take immediate action and regulate this abuse, therefore relieving the pressure of high costs especially during these difficult times. Waiting for 2015 to remedy this situation might as well leave half of the population dead until then - and even then if the problem is solved by 2015 for things to come back to normal another, maybe 5 years are needed . . . that is a long time indeed!
A Bezzina
Apr 5th 2009, 18:44
@ william sciberras.
That is what the world economy needs, hordes of workers manufacturing unnecessary products sold to consumers who are conned into believing that they need them, than we start complaining that we are living in trash. Inventing any means of employment in this world is simply not sustainable. Do you know that bottled water has little or no fluoride and over that children and their parents are conned into providing their kids with teeth softening fruit juices packed in more trash producing packaging. Stick to tap water and eat fresh (preferably local) nature-packed fruit. Avoid fruit which is packed in plastic and polystyrene supermarket packaging.
Kevin Zammit
Apr 5th 2009, 12:53
storm in a teacup ... I'm happy with the service as is and I think this system where we buy drinking water separatly to tap water for everyday use is proving to be more efficient. Pipes leak and can never be 100% efficient besides do we really want to lterally flush down the toilet good drinking water?
the companies will get subsidised ground water directly or indirectly through through tap water anyway. If we charge them for it then they will only charge us back and the price would have to go up.
Besides they're still being taxed on their profits anyway.
What's the alternative that we trust the government to deliver the bottled water? ... think of the gas distribution system and then tell me that is a good idea :)
g. scerri
Apr 5th 2009, 12:41
The lifting of water from the aquifer has long been known by anybody possessing some grey matter; it is only the authorities that have chosen to be blind to it. I remember Frank Portelli raising the issue in the "bad old days" of Dom. Mintoff. It has taken that long for this health issue to surface again. So we buy bottled water to avoid the nitrates in the water only to get them in the bottles of water we buy. And I believe boiling tap water is no solution unfortunately. So all this time some people have been making millions while endangering our health. No wonder there is a market for super yachts in Malta.
R Pace Bonello
Apr 5th 2009, 12:23
I have a slight problem with Ms Micallef's statement that "the Company makes no profit on the water". So where, may I ask, does the Company make the profit from? Could it be through the sale of the plastic bottle?
Chris Finch
Apr 5th 2009, 11:49
In future I will boil tap water and drink that or buy Farsons branded water. The coca-cola company makes billions of dollars worldwide and now takes water for free out of the ground from public sources.
Everyone should boycott their products. They had a similar thing going on in the UK with their Dasani branded tap water. This is no different. Who are the fools - them for selling something they get for free or us for buying it - Well no more from this consumer!
william sciberras
Apr 5th 2009, 11:20
We need more companies like General Soft Drinks to invest millions and porduce goods for no profit but simply to employ maltese workers. Well done, if other companies follow their example unemployment will be a thing of the past.
D Vella
Apr 5th 2009, 11:01
Just goes to show,might as well be drinking tap water. Some might say a lot of people are being conned.