Price would serve as ‘deterrent’

Placing a price tag on groundwater would give more value to this precious resource, serve as a deterrent against waste and kick-start the process of using more sustainable sources of water such as treated sewage effluent and rainwater on a national scale, according to hydrologist Marco Cremona.

“Groundwater is a precious resource (especially in Malta) and it has a high economic and strategic value. When something is given for free it loses its value, it is taken for granted and is abused,” he said

He was asked to react to the European Commission’s insistence that Malta start charging for water extracted from its aquifers.

“The EU Commission is interested in safeguarding the member states’ water resources and it sees pricing as being one of the most effective control mechanisms to protect the resource,” said Mr Cremona.

He argued that the country’s natural water system was fast being depleted and it was only a question of time before groundwater became useless because it would be too salty to use – even for agriculture. “Some farmers have installed their own reverse osmosis plants to make their borehole water useable. The Water Services Corporation is shedding more and more of its groundwater production sources (boreholes) every year because of deteriorating quality. We have probably already surpassed the point of no-return,” he said.

The country, he said, had only recently woken up to the imminent water crisis and still lacked basic information on the subject. The authorities still had no idea how much groundwater was being extracted through the 8,500 registered boreholes or how much groundwater could safely be pumped up without causing further damage to the aquifers.

Metering each borehole was a step in the right direction, although it would take time to complete. “It is unlikely that all 8,500 registered boreholes will or can be metered by the end of this year,” added Mr Cremona.

He acknowledges that charging for groundwater would bring certain sectors of the economy (especially agriculture) to their knees and believes that government has a duty to provide an alternative, with the most viable option being the treatment of sewage.

This could prove costly because sewage would have to be treated to a higher level than that for disposal at sea but “I’d rather see government subsidising the supply of treated effluent than subsidising groundwater, a strategic resource under threat of extinction, by giving the latter for free.”

According to the only statistics available on groundwater extraction, agriculture used around 19.1 million cubic metres of water, mostly extracted from the ground, in one year between September 2008 and 2009.

In contrast, last year the Water Services Corporation extracted only 12.7 million cubic meters of groundwater for distribution as tap water. Another 16.6 million cubic metres were produced by reverse osmosis plants.

WSC figures show that agriculture was only billed for the use of 0.3 million cubic metres in 2008, which means the sector was almost exclusively dependent on groundwater extracted privately at no cost.

The Resources Ministry said the government intended to safeguard the legitimate use of groundwater for agricultural reasons. It said this would be done through the allocation of quotas to individual farmers which would ensure agricultural land had the sufficient allocation of water to remain sustainable.

Regarding Malta’s failure to submit its management plan on groundwater to the EU, the government said it had submitted the draft plan but not the final one which would be concluded following the national public consultation period which comes to an end on November 30.

Meanwhile, Labour MEP Edward Scicluna demanded that the government not seek a derogation to extend the deadline for getting local groundwater to a sustainable and “good status” beyond the 2015 deadline specified in the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).

“The government plans that by 2015 the monitoring and reporting phase would come to an end and the plan of action will come into effect to ensure good water quality by 2027. But this government has to wake up and realise that by that date we would not have any potable ground water to manage. It would have run out,” he said.

A ministry spokesman said Malta had not requested such a derogation but asked for an extension to fulfil the directive’s requirements.