Maltese water researchers have embarked on a project with counterparts around Europe aimed at developing innovative solutions for farmers and policy makers in an attempt to address the country’s water scarcity.

Fostering Water-Agriculture Research and Innovation in Malta (FowariM), a new €960,000 collaboration between institutions in Malta, Italy, the UK, Belgium and Spain, will aim to train personnel with the necessary expertise to help decrease water demand and encourage the use of alternative sources.

The project will also focus on solutions for renewable desalinisation, on-farm desalinisation, and the utilisation of saline water, as well as decrease the negative environmental impact of nutrient rich farm water seeping into the water table.

Malta is one of the ten poorest countries in the world in terms of water resources per inhabitant. The severe dry-spell this winter has put further pressure on the country’s fragile groundwater resources, 90 per cent of which are already unfit for drinking because of high nitrate content.

While the amount of water that can be sustainably drawn from the aquifer is around 25 million cubic metres a year, the agricultural sector alone is estimated to use 28 million cubic metres of groundwater annually.

Studies conducted by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency and the British Geological Survey have indicated that restoring the country’s groundwater body would take some 40 years.

FowariM, which is being coordinated locally by the Mcast Institute of Applied Science, will include scientific management courses and advanced research degrees, as well as short summer courses in Malta for international participants.

Researchers will also hold workshops with stakeholders and carry out field experimentation and demonstration sessions, with the aim of passing on best practices to farmers and developing a policy road map for the future.