By mid-March some soils are already dried out and cracking in the sun, placing Malta well within the water scarcity zone.By mid-March some soils are already dried out and cracking in the sun, placing Malta well within the water scarcity zone.

On a small island between Africa and Europe, a lens of fresh water underlying the rocky land is becoming smaller, saltier and more polluted by the year.

With a succession of short-sighted administrations at the helm and still no monetary charge to restrict tapping of ground water (whether from registered or illegal unregistered boreholes) for agriculture and other uses – the island’s hydrological future looks bleak.

Yet the drawing of ground water up through boreholes, at a rate faster than the aquifer replenishes itself with rain water, goes on unabated.

After years of mismanagement, the island’s water supply is in crisis. Picture the scene as this reality kicks in:

A ban on car washes and fresh water swimming pools comes into force. Wardens hand out fines to anyone in the habit of hosing the dust off pavements in front of their homes. The replacement of fresh local fruit and vegetables by foreign imports marks the demise of traditional agriculture and quality products.

At some point in the not too distant future this could be the Maltese islands unless we make some urgently needed changes to the way we manage our water.

Geoffrey Saliba, project manager for the EU Life + water at the Malta Business Bureau, describes the water situation in Malta as “precarious”.

The present political commitment to a lower price for tap water and free ground water for farmers makes any long-term plan for future water security difficult to achieve

Accumulation of nitrates in ground water due to surface contamination from fertilisers and other sources is twice the level allowed by EU regulations. Only 50/50 dilution with reverse osmosis water can bring it up to European standard, making it acceptable for distribution by Water Services Corporation.

With raw quality compromised, quantity is an even more serious concern. For every two litres of rainfall finding its way to the aquifer, three litres are being extracted.

Most of the water from heavy downpours over a short period will end up in the sea. Moderate rainfall over a wider spread of time favours collection and slow percolation down to the water table. Unfortunately, climate trends indicate intense rainy periods ahead, which will increase floods and reduce infiltration to the aquifer.

Last November, the Ministry for Energy and Conservation of Water announced that the first meeting of an inter-ministerial committee for the development of a national plan to sustainably manage water had taken place. The setting up of the committee was the first recommendation to come out of a water catchment plan, put out by Malta Resources Authority and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in 2011, which looked at how to integrate management of ground waters and surface waters.

During the previous administration, a fair amount of documents on the water situation were churned out, yet not nearly enough was done to implement them. Under the present format of a national water management plan yet to be drafted we risk a half-measure compared to the wider (EU) approach to water management covering all types of water – tap water, ground water, surface and coastal waters.

At a public consultation on a national plan for water management, held earlier this month by the ministry responsible for water, a number of questions came up:

First impressions give rise to the view that the management net has not been spread widely enough if Malta’s water crisis is to be tackled adequately.

It appears that the ministry under whose wing the plan has been launched may be content to paddle in the shallows, sticking solely to responsibility for the obligations of Malta Resources Authority regulating ground water. Signs are scarce that the Ministry for Conservation of Water is ready to take on the managing of surface waters (rainwater run-off, ponds, streams) and coastal waters, which up to now fall under the environment and planning authority.

Holistically speaking, ponds and streams, which are largely transient with the seasons, are still an important part of our water signature as an island nation and must be included in any plan to manage water. We cannot afford a national water management plan which falls short of the over-reaching Water Framework Directive. Aligning the two would have been a more sustainable way to go about conservation of water in the Maltese islands.

Another concern to emerge from the public consultation prior to the drawing up of a draft water management plan was whether the currently declared demand for water is skewed, since ground water is still available for free. Lowering the tariff for tapped water, as government has announced it intends to do, can be expected to have a negative effect on water consumption, driving it upward.

According to engineer Marco Cremona, the current water demand of over 50 million cubic metres yearly is, to a certain degree, artificial since two-thirds of the water used by the country is pumped up without any charge beyond the cost of running a pump. Even a small charge would be effective at bringing a fall in demand.

“National water policies should not primarily focus on increasing water supplies, but on reducing water demand through increased water efficiency, in all sectors. I fear that the fact that the mains water tariff is being reduced will send out the wrong message, and the WSC may be constrained to increase its production – unless this is countered by other measures, such as the distribution of water-saving kits,” says Cremona.

The present political commitment to a lower price for tap water and free ground water for farmers makes any long-term plan for future water security difficult to achieve.

As far as regulation of quality goes, the Environmental Health Division’s monitoring so far only extends to first-class water. Private suppliers providing water from boreholes are only monitored from the operational side by the MRA.

With different standards of water produced after treatment or polishing of sewage (treated sewage effluent) there is an urgent need for a whole new regime of monitoring and reporting to be put in place.

MRA chief executive officer Anthony Rizzo pointed out that the development of further polishing plants would create a new water resource, yet at the same time this could remove the potential to promote rainwater harvesting.

“No part of the water industry can be tackled in isolation,” he said, adding that all water sources need to be looked at, since ground water will not be protected if considered in isolation.

Waste water treatment plants do not remove certain pollutants that are currently being thrown into the drains (such as thinners and solvents), and better advisory services for disposal of chemicals are needed.

Costs rise when treated sewage effluent must be further polished in order to be suitable to serve the needs of agriculture and industry. Control over what is dumped into the sewerage network must be more effective, as prevention is always better than trying to come up with a cure after the damage is done.

While there is much room for increased harvesting of rainwater it is impossible to store it all. Sustainable urban drainage systems and aquifer recharge are potential solutions, although for the latter there are still question marks concerning pharmaceuticals and hormones which may linger in treated effluent.

It could well turn out that the yet-to-be-built National Flood Relief tunnel may be under-designed, especially if we continue to take up more undeveloped land for building without making sure that the mandatory rainwater cisterns are put in place.

Manuel Sapiano of the Energy and the Conservation of Water Ministry’s Water Policy Unit stressed the need to adopt innovative solutions, upgrade existing systems for better management of runoff rainwater and adapt current practices for future scenarios when water availability will be reduced.

The unit is tasked with the co-ordination and implementation of the Water Framework Directive while researching and developing proposals for water resource management.

Without careful thought, the public consultation for Malta’s draft water management plan risks turning this important document into a sponge for conflicting views and opinions of a misinformed public, still largely in denial about the water crisis on these islands.

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