Water is the primary source of life on earth. Cities and dwellings have been built around rivers or close to a source of water. Despite the fact that this barren rock does not have rivers or lakes, it is what it is today because spring water sustained its population throughout the centuries, supplemented with this population’s intelligence in harvesting rainwater. Cisterns, dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, you name it – we built it!
Technological advancements and the development of reverse-osmosis plants have led us to believe that our water supply is infinite, leading us to neglect our natural source of water: our aquifers. Not only that, we have also not enforced a law set up in the time of the Knights of putting in a cistern with every building to store rainwater at source, reducing demand and also alleviating flooding.
A further issue has compounded this problem in recent years: the increase of intensively irrigated agriculture which has increased water demand exponentially, from 19 million m3 in 2008 to 28 million m3 in 2010. Moreover, the intensive use of fertilizers since the 1970s has led to an increase in nitrate levels that exceed EU directives.
At the same time, private individuals have illegally drilled boreholes for non-agricultural purposes, unlawfully financing their private enjoyment of swimming pools or other luxuries at the expense of a public resource like groundwater. Given that groundwater is a finite resource, every drop pumped out by these private sources is a drop taken from a resource, which would have otherwise been used by the local Water Services Corporation to keep water tariffs affordable. In essence, the law-abiding citizen who didn’t drill a borehole is paying for the abuse by others through higher water bills.
Ninety per cent of Malta’s aquifers fail to meet ‘good status’ as required by the EU Water Framework Directive. Over-pumping has resulted in the general salinisation of groundwater, with the result that the Water Services Corporation is steadily reducing its groundwater production due to deterioration in quality. Moreover, some farmers have had to invest in their own RO plants to remove salt from their groundwater sources to make the water suitable for irrigation.
A recent study has shown that water from valleys and rural areas of high farming and animal husbandry activity has nitrate concentrations that are six times the acceptable drinking water level. This high-nitrate water is slowly infiltrating the bedrock to reach the aquifer and continues to make an already bad situation worse.
Positive steps have been taken. Last year MRA closed a number of illegal boreholes in private homes, though many still remain and need to be tackled.
A borehole-metering programme on registered boreholes has started and is due to be completed in 2013.
In the last four years, the PN government has invested in excess of €100 million to treat all the country’s sewage, thus ensuring that we have one of the cleanest seas in the Mediterranean. Moreover, it has committed itself to invest in ‘polishing’ the treated effluent from the sewage treatment plants to recover water for agriculture.
The National Flood Relief Project includes a €1 million soak-away to help re-charge the aquifer with urban storm water, which is an inexpensive source of low-nitrate water.
It is evident that more needs to be done to safeguard our aquifer, as we cannot allow ourselves to become completely dependent on the RO plants, without means of redress in the event of a natural disaster like an oil-spill or sabotage.
Agriculture is the largest consumer of water in Malta today. Any significant improvement in the water situation in Malta has to inevitably address the way this sector uses water. Moreover, it is in the sector’s own interest to ensure that the aquifers continue to yield water for irrigation. In this context I believe that any agricultural policy that takes into consideration Malta’s water limitations needs to be drawn up. The sector must discuss the adoption of a ‘most-crop-per-drop’ policy. This should be coupled with reducing the use of nitrates in fertilizers, something that the Nitrate Action Programme starts to tackle.
It is essential to close down all illegal boreholes, stop the drilling of new ones, and monitor the use of registered ones. Farmers should be provided with alternative sources of water, such as polished sewage effluent and further incentives to invest in rainwater harvesting.
It is essential to enforce the age-old legislation of putting in a cistern with every building.
It is essential to find ways on how we can increase groundwater recharge with water of suitable quality, without risk to the same aquifers and to public health. The country should assess the possibility of building more soak-aways similar to that built as part of the National Flood Relief project, and restore existing ones.
I feel duty-bound to speak on this matter because future generations depend on it. And I don't want future generations to point their fingers at us for staying silent and for not taking the necessary actions.
Moreover, I feel obliged to speak when the alternative is a Labour Party that has no policy on this issue. I feel compelled to speak when Muscat seems to not even acknowledge the existence of this problem. I feel duty-bound to speak when Muscat, caught in his wave of promising everything to everyone, went as far as to say that the current process of metering and monitoring of private boreholes is not even required. I feel duty-bound to speak when Muscat promises to reduce utility tariffs when he has no policy on tackling the cost of water production.
As a candidate for the Nationalist Party, I urge it to continue building on the positive steps taken, and to give particular importance to water sustainability in its upcoming electoral manifesto.
For the survival of agriculture. For the survival of the aquifer. For a sustainable future for our children.
Mr Sammut is an engineer, a Nationalist member of the Gudja local council and a general election candidate on the fourth district
www.markanthonysammut.com