Friends of the Earth (Malta) is emphasising the need for a holistic water policy and has called on the government to issue the first national policy on water. This, it said, had not yet been forwarded to Cabinet for approval three years after its formulation in 2004.

The government would shortly be spending more than e140 million of EU funds on projects aimed at improving the country’s water and wastewater infrastructure. “There is the risk that, in the absence of a holistic water policy, Malta will fail to achieve a sustainable water status despite these huge investments. This will in turn threaten our livelihood and the country’s economic competitiveness,” said FoE.

It argued that over-extraction was severely depleting fresh water reserves. “It is outrageous that the greater part of extraction is from unregulated, illegal sources. Apart from agriculture, this finite resource is being exploited as a cheap substitute to town water by industries (including beverage companies), hotels, commercial establishments and even privately owned swimming pools. The unregulated quality of this water is also posing a serious risk to public health and our tourism industry.”

Friends of the Earth expressed concern that if the authorities procrastinated over taking action on this, Malta would risk facing further EU infringements, this time related to the Water Framework Directive.

It said it believed the government should implement the requirements of LN 238 of 2006, which stipulate that each new building and extensions of an existing building should incorporate a cistern for the collection and use of rainwater. Although this legislation was re-introduced on 2 January 2007, enforcement is non-existent. Domestic rainwater harvesting would result in a reduction in the flooding of flood-prone areas, while reducing the burden on the potable water supply. More information is available from FoE’s website www.foemalta.org