34m Metres3 of fresh water extracted each year

Malta Independent Tuesday, 17 November 2009, 00:00 Last update: about 13 years ago

Around 11 million cubic metres of fresh water are extracted excessively from the aquifer each year, said Resources and Rural Affairs minister George Pullicino in a news conference yesterday.

Currently some 34 million cubic metres are extracted per year and this figure should be lowered down to 23 million cubic metres to ensure good quality fresh water and sustainability. The Resources Authority under the MRRA intends to introduce a number of measures to achieve the standards.

Water bowsers carrying ground water will be installed with a tracking device to trace the origin and destination of all water extracted. Water carriers will also be equipped with a load cell to monitor and calculate the volume of water extracted.

Water bowser operators have until the end of November to register their trucks. So far, 21 have registered and MRA expects that around 100 have not registered yet. These own around 300 bowser trucks in total. After registration, the bowser operators will be issued with a licence to sell water, but not a licence for a borehole.

Legal Notice 249 of 2009 will cover this procedure. Pipeline regulations have already been in place since 2005 but these have been extended to water sellers by bowser now. The licensing was designed to control customer satisfaction and safety.

An exercise to find out how many boreholes are in use has been carried out earlier this year. Around 8500 boreholes have been registered and 2643 of these are used to extract water to be sold.

Minister Pullicino remarked that Malta has to achieve water quality standards set by the EU till 2015. He added that water quality has improved since reverse osmosis technique was introduced. “Now that the monitoring of fresh water consumption can take place, we can now focus on quality. We want to ensure that water usage is socially just. Legal action will be taken against those who fail to comply with the new law,” explained the minister.

Licence fees and charges for e-tracking the water tankers include an annual licence fee of E200 per water tanker or trailer licensed to transport water, E245 annually for the e-tracking device and E800 for the water level sensor per tanker.

Registration forms can be picked up from MRA’s offices in Marsa or downloaded from website www.mra.org.mt. More information is available on the same website or phone number 2295-5101.