Matthew Xuereb
New amnesty offered for illegal boreholes
Water being extracted from an illegal borehole.
The Malta Resources Authority is giving borehole owners the last chance to register their groundwater source after a similar exercise last year revealed the existence of 2,600 of them.
An MRA spokesman said the Resources and Rural Affairs Ministry published another legal notice amending the one issued in October 2008 that was for the notification of groundwater sources by November 20 of that year.
But unlike the first legal notice, this one has no closing date. It allows borehole owners who failed to fall in line the first time to regularise their position. However, they have to give good reason for their failure to comply and produce evidence to justify their reasons and claims.
Government sources said the new legal notice was aimed at people who genuinely missed the November 2008 deadline. In the past months it has been faced with genuine cases, where people were forced to travel for extended periods, and the authority did not have the legal means to waive the penalty in the case of these people.
The applications of these people will be assessed by an independent committee which will determine whether the evidence produced by the applicant justifies their failure to fall in line.
Besides a registration fee of €230, applicants will have to pay an additional fee of €100.
At present, there are around 8,000 registered boreholes in Malta and Gozo. A total 2,600 were notified to the MRA in November 2008 while another 5,400 boreholes had resulted from a similar exercise conducted in 1997.
The exercise is part of the authority's crackdown on borehole drilling - extraction of ground water is estimated at about 31 million cubic metres a year, eight million cubic metres more than the recommendations for sustainable extraction. Farmers use 16 million cubic metres a year.
The purpose of the exercise is to take stock of the local situation regarding the sources utilised for groundwater abstraction. The MRA spokesman said it was part of a long-term process whereby groundwater extraction will be conducted in a regulated manner for the purpose of restoring the quality of groundwater and aquifer reserves.
Following the 2008 exercise, the highest numbers of groundwater sources were reported in Siġġiewi with a total of 216, closely followed by 215 in Rabat. Żebbuġ follows with 155 sources and another 113 in Qormi. Mellieħa, Mġarr and St Paul's Bay, including Burmarrad, account for another 380.
In Gozo, Nadur registered the biggest number of groundwater boreholes with a total of 76, followed by 47 in Żebbuġ and 44 in Qala.
Several boreholes were found to be located in private households where the water is being used for domestic and other purposes, including irrigation of gardens and landscaping.
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12 Comments
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charles philip zammit
Oct 12th 2010, 14:53
it only boils to one thing. if a group of people are strong enough to blackmail this pathetic government with their votes they know they have a very good chance of getting away with murder. one must keep in mind that these boreholes do not cater for just irrigation purposes but we have seen swimming pools mushrooming around.
mario aquilina
Aug 15th 2009, 10:31
A nation of liberty takers,from top to bottom, from the government to the man in the street.
Dog eats dog. I would like to use other words, but then it won't be printed.
adrian sammut
Aug 15th 2009, 08:41
This goes to show why this country never changes. Illegal operations should be punished and nothing else. We taxpayers are paying through our noses for the water we consume. Some bowser operators have been operating illegally and making loads of money at the expense of the WSC for ages . Ridiculous - Vera pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse!
edward bartolo
Aug 15th 2009, 08:39
... and the honest citizen has to pay ~5 Euros for 1 cubic metre of water if he/she exceeds the limit!!! This is forcing the government to rely more on desalination plants which are costly to run increasing the price of water.
This is simply plain theft. The truth is that, in Malta, dishonesty pays. Well done to the government for promoting a culture that abuses the law.
Malta: A Cowboy's Paradise State!
Joe Morana
Aug 14th 2009, 16:16
Rejoice.!.this the island of amnesties for law breakers.
Succesive goverments have repeatedly granted amnesties to tax evaders, tax defaulters, turning a blind eye on illegal development and sqautters (e.g Armier , St Thomas Bay, Valletta etc) and now , illegal bore holes. It has also found ways to free drug traffickers, condone polluters (e.g. buses and powerstation etc) we taxpayers, have also been burdened with numerous ineffective quangos which are conspicuous by their, inertia, thier incompetence, their silence and insome instances by cases of corruption.
Does it pay to be an honest law abding citizen?
So much for the leaps in our qulity of life!!!
JPace
Aug 14th 2009, 14:14
This just goes to show why one breaks the rules. I applied for a bore hole a number of times in the past 4 years and even offered to have a meter installed to pay for the water I used for my fields and myself. Of course permit was refused even though I pointed out that I was buying bore hole water from people who were probably not paying for it. Since then over 1000 applied for registration last year and now this. So if I had gone ahead and dug a bore hole as all these people have done I would have qualified for the amnesty. And what about the handful of people who were caught and were fined and had their bore holes closed!!
It does not make any sense. Either bore hole water belongs to all of us or it belongs to none of us.
DVella
Aug 14th 2009, 13:16
WHAT . . . AGAIN????? How much longer are these people going to be allowed to continue stealing from and exploiting a natural national resource that belongs to all of us??? How much longer are they going to be allowed to continue pursuing their activities which have potentially grave consequences on the water table?? Anyone with the slightest inkling of hydrology would understand that damage caused to the water table can take decades to repair itself!!! What a sad country!!!
anton pizzuto
Aug 14th 2009, 11:34
Nice. Just keep on pumping!!
D. Zammit
Aug 14th 2009, 10:43
Hekk sew. Niextieq insaqsi Lil Onrevoli Ministru jekk hux possibli li jien bhala cittadin li dejjem hallast ghall l ilma li nuza jekk hux ser inqasli mill kont li gej. Dejjem hekk min hu onest ihallas ghall min hu.............
Jimmy Magro
Aug 14th 2009, 10:39
This is very bad national management. There have been many amnesties for borehole owners.
What a pity we are living in.
r ferriggi
Aug 14th 2009, 10:11
welcome to the jungle.
apparently there are people in high places who have their pools filled by bowsers ;)
amnesties galore.
il pajjiz tal mickey mouse. ( mickey mouse island)
instead of arresting them and closing the borehole,,,,,, we give a nice amnesty.
HOW on earth,,,, do the authorities expect us to pay our taxes ??
Mario Tabone-Vassallo
Aug 14th 2009, 10:06
L-ahhar cans sac-cans ta’ warajh u ta’ warajh u…..