(Adds ministry's reaction)
Labour MEP Edward Scicluna today called on the European Commission to ensure that the Maltese government complies with the Water Framework Directive to avoid imminent water shortage.
In a parliamentary question, Prof Scicluna warned the Commission that current practices have led to Malta facing an imminent crisis of its groundwater supply.
He said:
“According to scientific evidence Malta has the highest groundwater extraction density in the world. As a result we face the grave possibility that by 2025 we will run out of ground water fit for human consumption.”
The EU’s Water Framework Directive states that member states must promote sustainable and environmentally friendly water consumption practices.
In 2000, the EU set a deadline of December 2009 for member states to file their national water management policies on the implementation of the Directive. However, the Maltese government failed to meet the deadline.
Prof Scicluna asked the Commission for guarantees that Maltese citizens that they will not lose their only source of natural groundwater because of their government’s failure to keep to EU law.
RESOURCES MINISTRY'S REACTION
The Resources Ministry said in a statement that Prof. Scicluna would have been wiser had he used his energy to obtain a consensus within his party in favour of the courageous and concrete measures the government was proposing to address the problem.
Prof. Scicluna either did not know what was happening in Malta or wanted to hinder the process the government had embarked upon.
The government, the ministry said, had continued the borehole registering exercise, which found there were some 8,000 boreholes in Malta. It obliged those supplying water with bowsers to have a licence issued by the Malta Resources Authority and install a tracking system.
It also issued a legal notice obliging borehole owners to install a meter.
The ministry said it expected Prof. Scicluna to make a clear declaration as soon as possible saying he agreed with the measures the government was taking and that he would be at the forefront to convince the Labour Party to also take a position in favout.
Till now, it said, there had only been conflicting statement by the different Labour MPs.