More effort is required to ensure the sustainability of Malta’s groundwater, the Auditor General has concluded.

A performance audit report titled Safeguarding Malta’s Groundwater, which will be published today, says the threats to groundwater have generally been identified.

Maltese groundwater bodies have been classified as “at risk” due to excessive over-abstraction as well as high levels of nitrates and chlorides.

“These assessments were based on a number of assumptions, due to limited groundwater abstraction data,” the Auditor General found.

Groundwater is regulated in four key documents, the Water Policy, the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, the Water Catchment Management Plan and the Nitrates Action Programme.

Significant progress has been registered in the implementation of measures listed in the WCMP, and to a lesser extent, in the NAP. But the Water Policy is still in draft form and the climate change strategy has only recently been officially approved by Cabinet and is awaiting parliamentary discussion.

“Although a number of measures listed in these two documents are being implemented through other plans, a number of initiatives remain outstanding awaiting their formal adoption,” the Auditor General said.

He also pointed out that “legal and technical complexities” have hindered the implementation of groundwater metering, which was critical for providing groundwater abstraction information and for control purposes.

The installation of meters has progressed significantly in the commercial sector but those related to agricultural sources have been rescheduled for completion by mid-2013.

The full report may be downloaded from today from the NAO’s website: www.nao.gov.mt.