Farmers refuse to eat their produce, fearing contamination

Standing under the pouring rain next to their fields surrounding the sewage treatment plant in Mellieħa, the farmers admitted they refused to consume their own produce from the area.

What they take home is from fields located in other areas on the island, because they do not trust the quality of water in the borehole they draw from to irrigate their crops. Ever since the construction began on the sewage treatment plant at Iċ-Ċumnija, the quality of the water has been inconsistent, they claimed.

"The authorities say the produce is good for consumption, but we have our doubts. My wife warns me not to take home anything from these fields," said 79-year-old Anthony Caruana, who has been working the same fields all his life, long before any plans to build a sewage treatment plant there.

It was a feeling shared by seven other farmers who spoke to The Sunday Times as they still await compensation promised to them because, over a year ago, a pipe carrying sewage to the plant leaked and contaminated the groundwater they use for irrigation. In October 2008, all their harvest had to be destroyed.

Charles Borg was the one who reported the stinking water to the authorities. "When they came to test the water, they said we must stop using it. This was followed by warnings and threats of legal action that we had to destroy our harvest immediately. We did it. If we wanted to hide anything, we would not have called them. Our problem is that we acted responsibly and they did not. They are still saying they are estimated the amount to give us."

Entire fields planted with crops ripe for picking in February and March were lost, resulting in a substantial loss of income for the farmers who live off these fields.

"We had artichokes, garlic, carrots, broad beans, tomatoes, turnips and cauliflower. We got nothing," said 58-year-old Joe Borg, who works the same fields as his brother Charles.

For the two brothers, this is not the first incident. In May 2007, as preparations began for the sewage treatment plant, a deep hole was dug to draw groundwater that caused sea water to seep into the water table. The farmers' crops started dying.

"Even the weeds were dying. We asked them to check for salinity and they assured us the water was good to use. But the problems persisted so I bought some basic equipment to test it and the salinity level was extremely high. Then, too, all our hard work to plant the crops was useless," Mr Borg said.

The Borg brothers are full-time farmers and most of their fields are located in the vicinity of the sewage treatment plant. Every time their crops are destroyed, it means they have no income for that year because they need to allow time for the soil to recover after the produce is contaminated.

The incident in October 2008 was by far the worst. Mr Caruana said: "When I was irrigating my fields close to the plant, the others could smell the water from the top of the hill, it stank so much."

But they are still not confident all is well. "It stinks even now. Not as much, but it does. We do not know why. The authorities insist the water is good so our produce goes to Ta' Qali. But we do not consume it."

The Infrastructure Ministry had said the cause of the groundwater contamination has been resolved. The problem was caused by a defective deep sewer connection that was promptly fixed by the Water Services Corporation, which has since carried out extensive clean-ups until all contamination was removed, the ministry had said.

The farmers' issue was raised last April, and came to the fore after a sea of sewage was seen floating on the water beneath the plant. The Sunday Times regularly receives calls by readers witnessing floating sewage in the sea just under the plant.

When the Infrastructure Ministry was asked why raw sewage was being pumped into the sea, the ministry had blamed the animal farms located in the vicinity.

"The farm waste that is causing severe loading on the plant (mainly emanates) from pig farms... slurry has an extremely high organic pollution content... The system has a design limit," a ministry spokesman had said.

Questions sent to the ministry last Friday about the farmers' latest claims remained unanswered.