Madness to waste precious rainwater

If ever there was a project that was thought out in the most asinine manner it surely is the 11 kilometre-long tunnel that has just been given the go-ahead by the planning authority. Stupidity apparently has no limits. Malta is more than short of the most essential element for life and that is water.

Indeed we are practically without any potable water except for the quantities we draw from the lower aquifer and via the costly reverse osmosis. Squandering the rainwater that falls over our land verges on the criminal. Instead of trying our best to save every drop we can we are planning to make it rush as quickly as possible to the sea and unashamedly spend millions to give it a free ride.

Look out however. The EU is ordering every farmer to install meters on all boreholes and shafts (that were dug ages ago) so as to measure the water drawn up for our crops. This is done knowing full well that in summer watering has to take place every other day.

Not only that, but the shafts only draw rainwater. Plants do not absorb more than 10 per cent of the water. The rest returns to the aquifer. To make matters look even crazier on the part of the EU, this water on the upper aquifer is full of nitrates and as potable as urine. Indeed it is urine from animal farms that made it so. If the farmers do not draw it, it would flow on to the lower aquifer area and contaminate it with nitrates too. But the EU knows all. It helps the countries that are hit by flooding and encourages desertification in places like ours. It is helping us to throw this vital water into the sea. To add insult to injury, project manager George Buhagiar informs us that “If we included a water conservation plan the cost would have been unjustified for EU funding.”

When one considers that Singapore has in a few years reduced its dependency on Malaysian water by 50 per cent and is now bottling sewage water for drinking in schools while we throw water in the sea, then one concludes that we are outright mad.

The rainwater that falls on our 2,000 km of roads could all be saved and filtered in huge divided cisterns.

The receiving cistern should be covered with a sort of membrane to keep all dirt inside it. Then it would be pumped to the other section through a cotton filter which would hold all dirt. You could put in nano silver particles to kill all bacteria.

This would replenish the aquifer. Where agricultural land is in the vicinity this water would be carried to the farmers via plastic tubes.

Noiseless wind turbines could be used to power the pumps. The most precarious areas near Birkirkara could be rescued by huge reservoirs built under the four roundabouts that exist prior to reaching the town.

There exists a successful experimental system which collects all the rainwater that falls in Peter Paul Ruben Street in Attard. The engineer who built it found that the area was a no-flow area. He very wisely had four 60cm-wide shafts dug some 20 metres deep at the lower end.

The water flows into these and eventually finds its way to the aquifer. No flooding occurs. But the government is boasting of throwing away millions of litres of the golden stuff.

Our illiterate forefathers had the sense to put across the country lanes and roads low soft earth guides so that rainwater flowing would be guided towards wells just inside their fields. They could tell two days ahead that it would be raining when holed micro mounds appear on the field paths to indicate to farmers to prepare their water traps. Of course we now have University graduates who are capable to guide it not to wells but to the sea. Agriculture? What is that? Let the farmers burn energy to draw it from the lower aquifer.

The €56 million for the project could have covered expenses to serve our agricultural areas with water on tap and with money left to build underground water retaining reservoirs.

Water protection is a priority, according to the European Water Framework Directive. Apparently it is only farmers who have to abide by EU directives. Any MEP willing to pull the EU by the ear and guide us so as to help farmers?