It is unfortunate that the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs did not take to opportunity to use my comments on the perilous situation of our groundwater (The Sunday Times, November 22) to kick-start a proper public discussion on the subject. Instead, we were provided with a number of superficial assurances that protection of our groundwater is somehow being achieved.

I have already applauded the minister for taking action on the registration of boreholes and the installation of tracking devices on bowsers. However, this does not change the fact that we are still over-extracting our aquifers by an amount that is 50 per cent over sustainable levels.

If the situation is not urgently addressed, we risk losing the free supply of 23 million cubic metres of water a year in 15 to 20 years' time (the equivalent of 126,000 water roof-tanks a day).

Despite its continuing deterioration in quality, groundwater still accounts for two-thirds of all the water this country uses (the remaining third is produced by reverse osmosis).

To be fair with Minister George Pullicino, he has inherited a problem which has been staring us in the face since the mid-1970s, when the then Water Works Department drilled the first of 150 boreholes to extract groundwater for the potable water supply.

Since then, thousands of boreholes were drilled by all and sundry. We now have more than 8,000 registered boreholes and, possibly, a few thousand more that are unregistered.

Our only hope to safeguard this strategic resource of free fresh water is to cut back on extraction. But where will this cut come from? Will it be from WSC's pumping sources, which will result in a doubling of water tariffs? From agriculture? From heavy industrial consumers of groundwater? These are the difficult questions the minister faces today.

For more than 10 years, I have insisted on the use of treated sewage effluent as a cheap alternative to groundwater. The most suitable client for this water is agriculture.

Unfortunately, the powers-that-be deemed it fit to ignore and ridicule my recommendations, and proceeded to spend tens of millions of euros to construct sewage treatment plants that cannot recover water for re-use.

Now, barely a year after the Gozo sewage treatment plant started operations, we are re-investing in brand new equipment to ensure that the effluent will be suitable for irrigation.

Even if the quality of the effluent were brought up to scratch, how will the water be delivered to farmers? Will farmers be charged for this water? How will the government encourage farmers to use this recycled water when, only two weeks ago, the same minister promised farmers that they could continue to extract groundwater for free?

With his statement, the minister unwittingly compromised the use of Malta's only reliable alternative to groundwater. I call on the minister to retract this statement pending the formulation of a national water policy, which requires consultation with all stakeholders, including social partners, industry and agriculture.

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