Are we watering down the issue?

While experts warn that Malta’s fresh water reserves are drying up, the government says there is still time to draw up a sustainable plan for groundwater.

British geologist Gordon Knox warned of a collapse of Maltese agriculture by 2025 due to increasing salinity in the aquifer. Hydrologist Marco Cremona is convinced Malta is over-extracting groundwater by at least 50 per cent over sustainable levels. Former Water Services Corporation (WSC) chairman Tancred Tabone used even more alarming language: Malta will run out of its most precious resource in about five years.

The government acknowledges the problem but plays down the scale, saying it has a detailed plan to tackle the issue.

The Labour Party and Alter­nattiva Demokratika point fingers squarely at the Nationalist administration, but do they have a plan themselves to tackle such a hot potato before it’s too late? Can Malta become completely depen­dent on reverse osmosis (RO) plants?

Extracting groundwater is currently free for everybody, with agriculture being the biggest consumer. The WSC is suffering the consequences of over-extraction (in terms of water quality) and is now only extracting 12.5 million cubic metres a year, instead of the 17 million m3 per year it was extracting in 2003.

Mr Cremona believes any sizeable cutback in extraction will have to come from either the agricultural sector or the WSC, which together account for more than 90 per cent of total extraction. The deficit of 11 to 12 million cubic metres cannot be met through an increase in water use efficiency alone.

If the greatest cutback comes from the WSC it would then have to get its water from increased production of RO, which will inevitably increase the cost of tap water. This could encourage more consumers to shift to free groundwater – a catch-22 situation.

Limiting agriculture’s access to free water is a contentious issue – the sector is already facing difficulties, so placing restrictions or putting a price on groundwater is a blow farmers could do without. At the same time, advocating a major increase in water tariffs will not be a popular move by any political party.

Domestic groundwater extrac­tion for swimming pools and private gardens is believed to be significant at around five per cent of private extraction, probably exceeding what is extracted by the bottling industry. There are 806 registered domestic bore­holes, compared with 37 in the food and beverage sector.

But Malta cannot allow the situation to continue as is because it risks running out of groundwater soon, while the 2015 EU Water Framework Directive is forcing the government to make a cutback.

The government made it clear it will not charge farmers for groundwater but has not said whether it will charge sources of other forms of extraction, like bottlers.

A Resources Ministry spokes­man said abstraction for non-agricul­tural use is currently being metered, which would allow the government to take an informed decision following the observation period, based on field data and the real impact of this abstraction on the aquifer.

Environmental controls will also be introduced and action will be taken should there be a marked deterioration in the quality of the abstracted water.

Charge schemes and metho­dologies are being developed. However, the ministry noted that a number of fixed charges for private abstractors have already been introduced, like meter installation fees.

Asked how the government plans to reduce agricultural water demand if groundwater remains free, the ministry said wasteful use would be targeted through the setting of abstraction quotas.

The principle of cost recovery will be applied for any excess above the quota but the government made it clear it does not envisage any change in agricultural policy because of groundwater constraints.

“The government will, however, continue to instigate awareness within the agricultural sector for better conservation and efficient use of water.”

However, the government believes this factor should not preempt urgent corrective action – knowing long-term over-extraction is unsustainable.

The ministry said current indications from the national monitoring networks did not indicate a collapse of the aquifers. It said water levels in gauging boreholes and mean-salinity in WSC abstraction stations were relatively stable.

“This situation gives Malta the necessary time to take the necessary action towards ensuring a sustainable water supply without having immediate disastrous effects on the economy.”

In view of a reduction in demand mainly brought about by the success of the leakage reduction programme, the WSC was extract­ing less groundwater, the ministry said. As a result of this programme, there has also been a significant reduction in the volume of water produced by desalination.

All significant sources (in excess of one cubic metre a day) in the mean sea level aquifers will be metered. Action would be taken to reduce the imbalance between abstraction and recharge even during the implementation period, the ministry said.

The main thrust of the water policy is based on instilling a culture of water efficiency while identifying non-conventional sour­ces (such as treated sewage ef­fluent) which can be utilised in­stead of groundwater. However, due to “infrastructural require­ments”, action will be taken in the medium term.

The Labour Party, on the other hand, said it had a consistent track record on water harvesting and water management and blamed the current situation squarely on the Nationalist administration.

Back in the 1970s, the Labour government had started huge infrastructural projects to clean up valleys and help preserve rain­water. It tabled ideas on water conservation and, in 1997, it started the Wied il-Qlejja project, which the Nationalist administration then abandoned.

“Unfortunately, successive PN administrations did not continue investing in sustainable solutions in the water sector with the result that so much precious time has been lost.”

The PL said it did not support quick-fix solutions after 23 years of inertia that could jeopardise this sector. Unfortunately, given the low level of importance the government was giving to this sector, farmers were already being disincentivised, Labour said.

The party said it had long been following this issue, holding meetings with a number of experts, but did not reply to a question asking whether there should be a revision in policy to reduce agricultural demand for water. Nor did it say whether private extraction by non-agricultural sources be banned outright or metered and charged.

Labour said singling out the bottling industry, which accounted for less than one per cent of total water extraction, would not have a tangible effect on the problem.

Instead, it maintained the country should go for a comprehensive strategy, aimed at increasing supplies, which includes water harvesting, water recycling, storm water management and regulating the disposal of salinated water.

Some of the proposals that should be looked into, Labour said, included evaluating the possibility of providing a low-salinity treated sewage effluent network for agriculture and industry to decrease dependency on water extraction.

It insisted new buildings should have rainwater storage capacity while the reservoirs network built in the 1970s should be reactivated.

Alternattiva Demokratika said the issue of groundwater protection should be seen within the context of the overall protection of water resources, which included storm water and recycled sewage.

The current state of affairs was the result of neglect by successive governments over the years, an AD spokesman said.

The free-for-all attitude permitted over the years resulted in a situation where those who used large amounts of water found it cheaper to either drill a borehole or purchase water extracted from boreholes.

Water resources had also been mismanaged through the erratic design of the sewage purification system, the spokesman said.

AD maintained that all unauthorised boreholes should be banned and that the WSC should have the priority for the use of groundwater.

Farmers should also be permitted to use groundwater but a quota subject to either no payment or minimal payments should be established in relation to the size of their fields. In the long-term, agriculture should shift towards recycled water.

Industry’s groundwater require­ments should be established but there should be a transi­­tion to the use of recycled water – industry should pay commercial rates for water, AD said.

Mr Cremona said it was clear the political parties were reluctant to take a strong stand on the use of groundwater in the short term.

“Their stand is understandable, but not commendable, in a democratic country where not upsetting the electorate is evidently more important than doing what’s needed in the national interest.

“By the time we finished metering the boreholes, studying the impact on the aquifers and building the infrastructure to make treated sewage affluent available for agriculture, there’ll be no more water left to protect.”

Malta’s water resources have one major problem: they are invisible and it is therefore relatively easy for any party in government to postpone the hard-hitting solutions until the next administration, and the next, while the situation on the ground deteriorates.

The Water Catchment Plan for the Maltese Islands (an official document produced by MRRA to be submitted to the EU Commission) states that all of Malta’s aquifers, with the exception of two, do not qualify to be classified as good status.

Contrary to popular belief, groundwater will not run out. The borehole pump will always pump up water, but it will be increasingly saltier.

“The question is: at what stage of salinity can we say that we have truly lost our water resources? At what stage should we say we have a crisis on our hands? Do we really have to start pumping seawater before we tackle the problem seriously?”

The WSC is pumping up 4.5 million cubic metres less ‘free’ groundwater than six years ago, which Mr Cremona believes is a bad sign.

He questioned the government’s claim that monitoring reports showed the aquifer was not about to collapse.

“How can this be the case when the WSC is reducing its extraction, year after year? If the quality were the same, wouldn’t WSC prefer to extract ‘free’ groundwater for tap water instead of producing expensive water from the RO plants?

“Farmers have been forced to invest in their own RO units to remove salt from their borehole water to remain in production. But is this sustainable?” He urged the authorities to heed the FAO Malta Resources Review Report 2006, which spelt out the tough political decisions that had to be taken to achieve some form of water sustainability. The report clearly identifies the main source of Malta’s water problems – water governance.

Mr Cremona said: “There is some heartening news. All three parties are waking up to the potential of treated sewage effluent as an alternative to groundwater... albeit a bit late in the day.”