Alarm is sounded over groundwater resources

Farmers risk losing their livelihoods due to the high saline content of the islands’ groundwater resources, the Malta Water Association warned political parties yesterday.

Many have already invested in small reverse osmosis units to make water from aquifers suitable for irrigation, but this additional cost of production is unsustainable and has eroded the competitiveness of the agriculture sector, the MWA said.

The warning was one of several contained in a report by the group of water management experts featuring a list of 11 recommendations for political parties.

The experts also cautioned that Malta was moving towards total dependence on the reverse osmosis of seawater due to the over-exploitation and contamination of groundwater resources.

If this happened, a power outage of more than 48 hours or a major oil spill around the seas of Malta would result in an emergency situation.

With no source of fresh water, Malta would have to import it at very short notice from its neighbouring countries, the MWA has said.

The Water Services Corporation currently gets around 45 per cent of its water from inexpensive groundwater, but the amount extracted by the WSC has steadily decreased in the last 10 years because of its deteriorating quality, the report noted.

Malta has effectively lost 1.5 billion cubic metres (estimated worth €1.5 billion) of drinking water to contamination of water by nitrate from unregulated agricultural activities and sewage leaks, according to the report.

“Trends show that groundwater will not be contributing towards the public water supply in the near future,” the MWA said.

By issuing its recommendations, the MWA hoped to put water on the national agenda ahead of the general election expected in the coming months.

“Present and future governments have a duty to ensure that the admittedly-limited resources we inherited are passed on to future generations,” MWA s president Dirk De Ketelaere told The Times.

“If action is not taken today, easy and affordable access to a sufficient amount of water will soon become a thing of the past.”

Malta has only 40 cubic metres per capita per year, while Europe considers any country having less than 2,000 cubic metres per capita per year as suffering from water scarcity.

According to the MWA, the €150 million invested over recent years in water-related infrastructural projects has failed to address Malta’s more pressing water concern; that is, ensuring the long-term sustainability of groundwater, “the islands’ most economic and strategic resource”.

“The political will to address water sustainability issues has been severely lacking ... Malta’s water problems are ‘invisible’ to the population,” the MWA said.

Widespread abuse of groundwater resources and rampant non-compliance with water regulations has made enforcement of water regulations difficult and unpopular, neutering the political will to address the matter, the MWA added.

According to official figures, Malta’s aquifers are being exploited at a rate of 34 million cubic metres per year, at a time when the estimated sustainable yield from all aquifers is no more than 25 million cubic metres per year.

The WSC is only producing 12.5 million cubic metres a year from groundwater, while the private sector is pumping out more than 20 million cubic metres every year free of charge.

Key recommendations

• Draw up a National Water Management Plan.

• Enact legislation to establish that groundwater in Malta is a public resource.

• Create an Environment Authority which will combine all existing authorities that are dealing with the environment.

• Enact continuous public awareness campaigns on water criticality.

• Total groundwater abstraction must be reduced drastically until the aquifer has improved to such an extent that it may eventually allow abstraction to the maximum sustainable level.

• A realistic monetary value on groundwater is essential to ensure that water is used efficiently.

• Ensure rainwater reuse at source in buildings.

• Eliminate rainwater connections to sewers.