Why is it that we tend to take the most important things in life for granted?

Most of us take water supply for granted and do not care much about the consequences of one day running out of our vital resource.

The World Resource Institute, an environmental research organisation that is based in Washington, has sounded an alarm bell on our vulnerability to inadequate water supply when it placed Malta “among the 19 countries across the globe at risk of drying out”.

While we enjoy a temperate climate with adequate supply of annual rainfall, we seem to be running the same risks as desert countries . Even if we do not live in the middle of a desert, it is essential that we understand the importance of water preservation both on a national as well as on a personal level.

Most economists agree that one of the most formidable challenges facing the world in the coming decades is the availability of fresh water that is such an important critical success factor, not just in relation to our quality of life but also for our economic growth. A sustainable and regular supply of fresh water is as crucial to our well-being as the availability of oil and the by-products that are made from it.

One person that has been sending warning signals about the vulnerability of our water supply is hydrologist Marco Cremona who told Times of Malta that “the continued dependence on ground water extraction and relatively low catchment of rainwater is leading to the drying out of the island’s reserves”.

It is worrying that not enough is being done to ensure that water preservation really becomes a strategic economic priority. The problem of illegal boreholes that drain so much of the country’s underground water supply has been tackled with little political determination in the past two decades.

As rightly pointed out by Mr Cremona, “the extraction of groundwater should be monitored using onsite meters”. We need to go further and conduct a proper cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the extraction of groundwater by farmers who might be charged a subsided rate for using such water is economically viable.

Another initiative that needs to be promoted with more political determination is the preservation of rainwater.

We may not be able to do much about the 10 per cent of rainwater that evaporates but we can certainly preserve more of the 65 per cent that is lost during heavy flooding in certain areas.

Admittedly, the current ambitious project through which flood waters will be channelled to reservoirs is a positive development that needs to be completed as early as possible.

As the population of Malta continues to expand, partly as a result of an increasing number of tourists that visit, more and more factors will begin to affect water availability. Therefore, a comprehensive educational campaign needs to be launched to promote sensible water preservation techniques that will help to protect the water supply for future generations.

Simple measures can have a significant effect while, at the same time, promote a cultural change in the way we treat our water supply. For instance, according to current research, inside the home, dual-flush toilets use 67 per cent less water than conventional toilets. It would not take much to achieve significant savings by following tips like this.

Water preservation is not rocket science – it just requires a good measure of common sense and strong political will to change our wasteful habits.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.