Malta’s traditional countryside and heritage landscap has been altered irrevocably by urban sprawl over the past half century. The agricultural sector has experienced a continuous decline, undermining food security and sustainability.

Worse than this assault on the traditional landscape, however, is the widespread use of improper, and illegal, agricultural practices by farmers through excessive use of cancer-causing nitrates, which contaminate Malta’s precious groundwater. This leads to nitrate levels in groundwater reserves in some areas being several times over the EU’s quality standards, with worrying and unpredictable long-term effects on the quality of the food we eat, and on food safety.

To further exacerbate the situation, animal farms are operating illegally. Due to the absence of long-promised waste treatment facilities, liquid waste continues to be dumped illegally in the sewage system by means of bowsers, or onto agricultural land to boost yields.

The Water Services Corporation’s call for urgent action by the Environment Ministry and a specific case of one farmer’s three-year struggle to stop bad farming practices in fields adjacent to his own have brought these bad practices to public notice.

This farmer’s neighbours pay for bowsers to dump slurry – that is, sewage collected from cesspits at private residences, animal farms and mobile toilets – over their crops, a practice which is both disgusting and illegal. The slurry spurs plant growth and provides good yields to these farmers.

But when the sewage seeps into the ground it contaminates Malta’s groundwater supply. Moreover, the safety of the food produced is questionable as the contaminants in the slurry and the water travel through the food chain.

Although random checks are made at the farmers’ market (il-Pitkali), avoiding detection by health inspectors is easy as the farmers concerned sell their produce directly to the public or through street hawkers. Consumers then purchase it in ignorance of the hazardous nature of what they are about to consume.

The quality of agricultural produce is being called into question by this practice since farmers use boreholes to extract groundwater. It would seem that both the EU’s Nitrates Directive and the Water Framework Directive are being openly flouted by many farmers and that the authorities are turning a blind eye to what farmers are doing, or to the possible health consequences.

A number of actions are urgently needed. First, the Malta Resources Authority needs to take long overdue action on the metering of agricultural boreholes and implement steps to restore groundwater quality in line with the EU’s directives.

Thanks to excessive nitrates caused principally by bad farming practices and increasing salinity due to over-extraction, the water produced by almost 90 per cent of Malta’s aquifers no longer meets EU standards for safe drinking water.

Secondly, a monitoring system should be put in place to assess the extent of nitrate drift in valleys and areas of intensive agriculture. This would help to alleviate concerns about the health risks arising from nitrates and pesticides and encourage greater organic farming.

Third, action to stop abuse of nitrates through greater enforcement needs to be implemented. Fourth, action must be taken to bring a manure plant into operation as soon as possible. There is genuine cause for concern about Malta’s home-grown food safety and the quality of water which must be resolved.