The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797 tells the tale of a sailor who recounts his ship’s voyage out of the Antarctic.

Water, water everywhere… and not a drop to drink. This is the line that encapsulates the terror of the crew at being stuck in sea ice, surrounded by ocean, with not a drop of potable water in sight.

The poem is relevant to the government’s announcement of a proposed water policy, which was launched for public consultation earlier this week. During the announcement, Resources Minister George Pullicino pointed out that 57 per cent of the local potable water supply was produced at desalination plants.

Desalination is not a new idea. The first attempt to implement it was in the 1600s when the British were vying with the Dutch for control of the East Indies – the Spice Islands and the lucrative trade that came with it. The attempt failed miserably. But the idea was never dropped – and it was precisely from ship voyages that it eventually evolved into desalination as we know it today, through the process of thermal desalination or reverse osmosis through semi-permeable membranes. The idea was that a contained environment with no access to fresh water should have a supply of potable water. That very principle, which is now employed on submarines and ships the world over, has proven to be Malta’s salvation. We are a ‘ship’ in the middle of the sea and we have very little fresh water.

But desalination carries with it consequences. One of these is the damage to marine life, but this has been offset by the fact that the plants here are fed by shore wells, and not directly from the sea. But there is another cost – emissions. The process to carry out desalination is heavy on energy use and it is, of course, powered by fossil fuels. In a sense, it is a catch-22 situation. Global warming (and over extraction) is causing our groundwater levels to deplete. In producing potable water through reverse osmosis, we are contributing to more carbon emissions. And this is where the water policy comes in. We need to find ways in which to reduce the amount of energy needed to produce water by such means. And it also needs to be financed. Minister Pullicino said that an estimated capital investment of €200 million will be needed to implement all the measures required by the Water Framework Directive. He also said that new infrastructure will be needed and that operational costs are expected to increase as environmental standards become more stringent and demanding. He said that cost recovery through “fair and equitable tariff schemes will become essential”, so consumers will be required to bear some of the investment and operational costs. The government, he said, will continue to adopt the “user pays principle”, while giving recognition to social principles and the right to access of good quality water.

In very simple terms, it is a stark warning that in the future, water consumption tariffs are set to increase… perhaps dramatically. It is no coincidence that water remained very cheap in comparison to the massive hike in electricity tariffs. And this, when water is relatively expensive to produce from brine. The government says that “fair and equitable tariff schemes will become essential”, but it begs the question: Fair to who? The general public or the Water Services Corporation? Perhaps the government would have been wiser in balancing out the tariff schemes when the hike was announced. But no, that would leave no avenue to rake in more money to make up for the shortfall in revenue. Brace yourselves, it is not likely to be very pretty.