Environment improving but ‘it’s never enough’

While Maltese sea quality remains excellent and air pollutants are under control, significant environmental problems with groundwater quality remain, according to the latest environmental report.

Unveiled yesterday, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority ’s 2009 Environment Report provides an overview of the state of the Maltese environment, albeit one over two years old.

The delay did not go unmentioned, as Environment Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco politely chastised Mepa and augured that future reports would be more up-to-date.

Environment protection director Petra Bianchi was on hand to assure Dr de Marco that Mepa was working at producing more timely reports. The indicators for 2010, she said, would be published in the first half of next year.

The 2009 indicators show overall improvements in air quality standards, with a significant 20 per cent drop in sulphur dioxide levels and nitrogen oxide levels well below EU limit values.

Air quality improvements were mainly attributable to the use of cleaner fossil fuels, Mepa policy coordination unit manager Marguerite Camilleri explained.

Further improvements were stymied by a 1.9 per cent increase in the number of vehicles on Maltese roads during 2009. Malta has the fifth highest vehicle density rate in the world, with over 750 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants.

But groundwater quality continues to be a matter of concern, with almost 90 per cent of it having nitrate levels higher than the EU maximum limit. In Pwales, nitrate levels were more than six times the EU limit.

The EU Water Framework Directive requires Malta to achieve “good status” in all waters by 2015, a target the islands are guaranteed to miss.

Nitrate pollution, which is caused by over-extraction of groundwater as well as pesticide use, is notoriously hard to reverse. In some cases, Dr de Marco said, it could take up to 40 years to reach adequate stand-ards of nitrates.

In contrast, almost 94 per cent of Maltese bathing waters were categorised as excellent quality in 2009.

This year’s opening of Ta’ Barkat wastewater treatment plant, which made Malta the first Mediterranean country to treat all its sewage water, is likely to lead to a further improvement in sea water quality over the next years.

Waste generation decreased by almost 62 per cent between 2008 and 2009, mainly because of less construction waste.

Trends in municipal and biodegradable waste were not as positive, however, with Maltese citizens each producing about 130 kilograms of waste more than the EU average over a one-year period.

Electricity generation was down by five per cent, a decline that Ms Camilleri said could be attributed to several factors, from increases in renewable energy sources to declines in productivity due to the recession in 2009.

There was a significant 22.5 per cent drop in the number of housing permits issued, with an almost 50 per cent decrease from the 2007 peak, when almost 12,000 permits were issued.

Noting that development permits appeared to have stabilised, Dr de Marco said it was important to guide the construction industry towards regeneration and restoration of existing buildings.

Another encouraging indicator was the fact that over 13 per cent of Malta’s land area was environmentally protected as part of the Natura 2000 network.

The percentage – which is higher than the EU average – was all the more encouraging when one considered Malta’s small size and high population density, Dr de Marco noted in a satisfied tone.

Protected areas required specialised management, and Dr de Marco said that the government was committed to having management plans for all Natura 2000 sites by the end of 2013.

Public environmental expenditure rose to 1.8 per cent of GDP in 2009. Dr de Marco was keen to list a number of the government initiatives that were expected to affect future environmental indicators positively. But despite continued efforts to face up to Malta’s environmental challenges, Dr de Marco acknowledged that more needed to be done, candidly conceding that “It’s never enough”.

The report, together with maps and datasets, is available for download from the Mepa website.