Former Water Services Corporation chairman Tancred Tabone has labelled the assertion that Malta will never run out of water as “irresponsible”.

If we carry on extracting uncontrollably, we will get into trouble...

Last week, CEO Mark Muscat said the worst case scenario would be a worsening in the quality and the need for more purifying treatments.

Addressing the launch of a water policy, Resources Minister George Pullicino re-affirmed the CEO’s statement.

Mr Muscat was rubbishing a claim Mr Tabone made in 2010 that Malta’s underground water would run out within five years.

When contacted, Mr Tabone said it was irresponsible for Mr Muscat to come out with a statement that Malta would never run out of water because it almost encouraged people to be wasteful.

“Even if it were true, it is irresponsible,” he said, adding that evidence had already shown aquifers were being depleted and water quality was deteriorating.

“We can desalinate the entire Mediterranean and have water forever but, besides being expensive... logic tells us that if we have a free resource of underground water we should look after it,” Mr Tabone said.

He said the country had a fantastic history of water harvesting and collection in a sustainable way, with dammed valleys since the 1600s and every house built with its own reservoir and well.

“At some point, we seem to have pushed this by the wayside and started extracting,” he said, pointing out that areas in the north of the island have already been depleted and farmers are now using reverse osmosis technology to treat water from their boreholes.

Comparing the aquifers to a cocktail, Mr Tabone pointed out that by sucking too hard from the bottom, the salty water was being extracted together with the fresh water at the top, leading to the salty sediments coming to the surface.

“We are three years away from my prediction and six years away from the one made by (hydrologist) Marco Cremona... If we carry on extracting uncontrollably, we will get into trouble...

“This is like overfishing. If you take out more than you are putting in, it is unsustainable,” he added.

Referring to the minister’s assertion that people could still drink tap water, Mr Tabone said people had noticed a drop in quality in tap water, further evidence that the quality was indeed getting worse and that something had to be done.