Alarm bells should ring – resoundingly. Instead, in true current administration mode, another major national issue is being given scant importance. Public awareness is stifled while the politicians in power are too busy congratulating one another, to focus on the critical issue of water conservation.
For every three litres of water consumers pay for, two are being taken from our aquifers at no charge- Franco Mercieca
Why should we be concerned? The Malta Water Association points out that Malta is among the 10 poorest countries globally in terms of water resources per inhabitant.
Due to our small catchment area, warm climate and high population density, we have below the 1,000 cubic metres threshold of water per inhabitant commonly considered to be the minimum to sustain life and ensure agricultural production in countries with climates that require irrigation for agriculture.
In fact, with only some 60 cubic metres per inhabitant, Malta is disturbingly below this threshold. Nowhere in Europe is water such an acutely scarce resource.
We are already over-reliant on seawater desalinisation – reverse osmosis. And our precious ground water continues to be depleted at a rate far in excess of the natural replenishment rate from rainfall.
Consider the following startling figures (Gordon Knox, The Times, February 3, 2010) – Reverse osmosis: 16m cubic metres per year; ground water extraction by Water Services Corporation: 14m cubic metres per year; private borehole extraction: 20m cubic metres per year.
So for every three litres of water consumers pay for, two are taken from our aquifers at no charge.
The steady over-extraction of ground water results in seawater slowly invading our aquifers, raising the salinity level of what was once pure drinking water.
Our ground water is also being contaminated by heavy concentrations of nitrates from fertilisers and by animal waste seeping into the aquifers. So poor has the quality of our ground water become that it must be mixed with desalinated (reverse osmosis) water to meet EU drinking standards for our homes.
With our increasing population, growth in tourist arrivals, over-extraction, salination and nitrate pollution of ground water, we face a decline in and deterioration of agricultural output, and ever-increasing reliance on reverse osmosis for domestic water consumption.
This may not seem alarming unless we appreciate that the desalinisation process consumes large quantities of electricity. In 2010, 56 per cent of Malta’s potable water was produced by desalinisation, using 3.8 per cent of all electricity generated in Malta, at considerable cost, not only economic but also environmental.
As the cost of water continues to rise and our dependency on reverse osmosis/desalination increases, so too will our economy become more vulnerable and exposed to fluctuations in international oil prices.
So isn’t there a dire need for a national water policy for sustainable water management, and a national agriculture policy to prevent the agricultural sector from entirely withering away?
Why hasn’t the government immediately closed all non-agricultural boreholes? And at what stage are we in metering of boreholes for agricultural purposes?
Many dams built by the British are dotted around our islands (Chadwick Lakes is a prime example). Most of these have been allowed to fall into disrepair. With our underutilised building skills and bloated construction industry, why haven’t the dams been maintained?
Why hasn’t the government introduced policies and regulations to ensure water conservation and that harvesting methods are stringently adhered to?
To illustrate this point – consider Gozo: it has a total surface area of government buildings of 436,804 square metres and an average rainfall of 600mm. The total amount of rainfall that could be collected from government buildings alone would be 262,082 cubic metres; this would cater for over 50 per cent of Gozo’s potable water requirements.
We have, of course, excluded potential increased water collection from roads and wells. Would planning for rainwater collection along roads and beneath roundabouts under construction be a plausible option and compatible with the fictitious Eco-Gozo concept, rather than allowing the water to cause havoc every winter?
Shame on the Malta Environment and Planning Authority yet again – for failing to ensure that all new commercial and residential buildings have a water reservoir that is at least 30 per cent of the roof area.
On the contrary, the run-off water on the roofs of many buildings is connected illegally to the sewage system. So every time it rains heavily, our precious water is lost in sewage that then flows onto the streets. Yet this disgusting state of affairs has been allowed to persist.
We need to give priority to rainwater harvesting, storm water run-off capture, proper waste and sewage recycling – rather than a City Gate project and building fancy bridges that lead to nowhere.
And we need to be genuinely committed to the implementation of sustainable water management and agriculture policies. This government is not.
Mr Mercieca is a prospective Labour Party candidate.