Lack of planning in storm water harvesting

The opposition spokesman on the infrastructure, Charles Buhagiar expressed his concern and called for better planning in terms of the water problem in Malta as suggested by the Environmental Report, adding that the solving issues in the water sector was of utter importance.

Mr Buhagiar said that the water problem in Malta was a serious one and needed to be urgently addressed. The EU directive bound the Water Services Corporation to provide ground water of an acceptable standard by 2015.

The issue of the aquifer had been raised in the past but has been abandoned. There were too many boreholes that were not registered.

He said that the reverse osmosis system solved the problem of water production but at what a cost. The environment report mentioned alternatives to reverse osmosis.

He said that the report tackled key measures and addressed problems and should be heeded. He referred to the 1997 legal notice that said that bowsers that carried water extracted from boreholes needed to be registered. Currently, around 8000 boreholes were registered.

Mr Buhagiar called for better internal cooperation and effective policies such as that the MRA was working on.

A suggestion in the report was for the collection of rainwater for farming purposes. However, farmers were currently facing problems from Mepa when applying for such systems and they needed help and incentives to do this. The government should subsidise them.

Another problem was that of rainwater harvesting to avoid flooding. The report provided further suggestions such as the introduction of culverts and building of canals in roads.

Water needed to be gathered and polished for re-use but decisions need to be taken.

Concluding, Mr Buhagiar said more needed to be done with the country's sewage treatment plan. He criticised the current cycle, saying there was a lack of planning and was not enough to conform with EU directives.

The debate continues on Monday.