Malta's Water Exploitation Index has shown an increase averaging 3.5 per cent per year since 2004, the National Statistics Office said today.

"This has occurred since groundwater abstraction went up by an average of 3.6 per cent per year, while freshwater resources, as calculated by the Long Term Annual Average (LTAA), have edged up annually by an average of 0.1 per cent."

In an overview to mark World Water Day, the NSO said that on average, groundwater abstraction makes up 45.5 per cent of  water production, with the remaining share originating from the desalination plants at Cirkewwa, Ghar Lapsi and Pembroke. Since 1995, total yearly water production decreased by an average 2.9 per cent per year, mainly as a result of a vast programme of leakage control that drastically reduced the amount of water losses from the underground network of water mains.

This reduction in the system demand brought down the extraction of groundwater by the WSC by approximately seven million cubic metres, or a decrease of 34.5
per cent.