If Malta continues to manage its groundwater within a comprehensive water management framework, then there is no risk of it reaching critical levels, but this also requires that every person does their part to ensure an efficient use of water, the CEO of the Energy and Water Agency Manuel Sapiano said.

The management of Malta’s groundwater has always been a challenging situation as it is Malta’s only source of natural fresh water, apart from winter rainfall. Sapiano explained that groundwater is complemented by Reverse Osmosis for drinking water supply purposes, which entails the desalination process of sea water. It is also used by industry and is the main water source for agriculture. He explained that groundwater still accounts for more than half of the national water supply today and therefore is an important resource.

This newsroom spoke to the CEO to uncover the current situation in Malta, whether there is a specified date by which time Malta’s groundwater would run out.

If Malta were to solely use pure groundwater for everything, without using Reverse Osmosis and other alternative water resources such as reclaimed water and harvested rainwater, Malta would use its sustainable annual groundwater yield within six months and this assumes a high level of efficiency in its use, Sapiano said. Thankfully, however, he said that this is not the case as Malta employs several methods to complement and limit the use of groundwater.

Monitoring data shows that currently parts of the groundwater aquifer in the central part of Malta are actually recovering following gross over-abstraction in the 80s and 90s which had resulted in heavy use, while other areas have stabilised, he said. This means that in some areas the level and thickness of groundwater has either stabilised or is actually increasing, he added. “But some parts of Malta, particularly regions supporting agricultural activities like Mqabba and Mgarr, have seen a decrease in groundwater levels, mainly due to increased abstraction over the years,” Sapiano added.

“Private agricultural boreholes have been metered and the feedback we received from the metering data is that farmers do use water judiciously but there are a lot of users,” he said. “Stopping farming is obviously not an option, so the way forward is to ensure that we can meet their efficient demand, while minimising their use of groundwater by complementing their supply with alternative water resources, such as New Water.”

Malta has come a long way from the 80s and 90s in terms of the preservation of groundwater.

“Looking at history, we could see techniques for rainwater harvesting from historic times, even going back to the Neolithic times. So, the need to preserve water was already there, possibly not because of overall unavailability throughout the year, but because of the variability of rainfall throughout the year resulting in long dry summers. So, there was the need to have the required storage capacity for ensuring water availability during summer. That is rainwater harvesting.”

“Sea-water desalination has an important role in ensuring security of water supply. Malta started using seawater for water supply as early as the 1880s, when distillation plants were commissioned in Tignè and Cottonera. It shows that even at that time, when demand was more limited, augmentation of supply was still required.”

“Sea-water desalination was also used in the 1960s through multi-stage flash distillation plants, (another technology of sea-water distillation). This technology, at the time, used a lot of energy – and when energy prices increased in the 1970s, due to the security crises in the Middle East, the use of these plants was not sustainable economically. This shows the importance of linking energy with water, as well as illustrates the fact that we are conditioned by situations which occur beyond our shores.”

“We were then ‘saved’ in the 1980s by the technology for desalination by Reverse Osmosis which uses membrane technology to remove salt from sea-water. In 1982, the Lapsi Reverse Osmosis plant was the largest in the Mediterranean on a commercial scale. I would say that Malta's recent water history starts here. The 1980s were characterised by long cuts in the water supply, so the natural reaction was to increase water supply by developing desalination plants. In fact, five desalination plants were commissioned, but we still couldn't meet the demand as there were still water rationing.”

“The early 1990s saw the formation of the Water Services Corporation (WSC), which took over the role of the Water Works Department. In addition, a landmark study by the French Geological Survey (BRGM) highlighted, among others, major leakages in the network. A leakage management programme by the WSC was launched in the 1990s resulting in a massive reduction in water demand, that by the mid-1990s, only three desalination plants were required and were operated at around half-capacity. This was an efficiency measure, which had a very important impact on water supply. In fact, today Malta’s water demand still stands at around 60% of the peak demand registered in the 1990s, which also means that less water needs to be produced, including groundwater.

“Thankfully our groundwater is within permeable rock, meaning that the rock easily absorbs rainwater and therefore has a high storage capacity. Then that water drops down to sea level and it literally lies over the sea water in the rock. So there is a lot of storage capacity, but on the other hand it is vulnerable to sea-water intrusion if it is mismanaged.”

From a water demand perspective, today in Malta people use around 110 litres of water per person per day, which is on the low side compared to the 200 litre EU average, Sapiano explained.

“We tend to use water efficiently but there are margins for improvement and new technology is being developed to lead to that improvement.”

Malta also has a rising block tariff, where the first 90 litres per person per day are at a relatively good price to ensure equitable access to an adequate volume of drinking water to all, but if someone exceeds that, a significantly higher tariff-rate is applicable. This is in line with the polluter pays principle, he said. But water conservation does not rest only on tariffs (economic instruments). He also said that appliances are more water efficient today than they used to be. “For example, a washing machine bought today uses much less water than one of 10 years ago. Toilet-flushing accounts for around 35% of water at home. But flushing systems today are much smaller than those 10 years ago. So people would be flushing the same amount of times but would be using less water.”

As for agriculture, currently, the New Water initiative, that treats wastewater for irrigation on farms, is seeing its distribution network continue to expand, he said. “When it reaches full capacity, it will be able to address around 30% of agricultural water needs, which is substantial. The rest is a mix of groundwater and rainwater harvesting. We've noted an increase in farmers building reservoirs in their fields. Still, the lion's share of water used for agriculture comes from groundwater and hence the need to increase supplies of alternative resources to substitute groundwater use and ensure a sustainable agricultural sector for the future.”

“One of the scopes of the New Water initiative is to do what the desalination process had done for drinking water. We need to develop sustainable practices to meet the demands of the agricultural sector, thereby helping farmers reduce groundwater abstraction to a sustainable level. Therefore, we need to fill the gap with alternative supplies and this is what New Water is about. While this phase of the New Water project would account for 30% of their water use, it does not mean that the production cannot be expanded and we are looking at that in the future.”

Because of all the measures taken over the years, parts of the aquifer are recovering and groundwater is increasing, while other areas, mainly agricultural areas, are still seeing issues, he added.

“Our worst overall groundwater-use period was in the 1980s. The reduction in groundwater abstraction has resulted in a betterment of the groundwater quality in the central areas of the islands. Our aquifer systems are extensively monitored and monitoring capacity is being increased. Compared to the 1940s, when the aquifers were relatively unexploited, there has been a decrease in groundwater levels, granted, but over these last 20 years, we have seen groundwater levels stabilising, meaning that the measures taken in certain areas have led the groundwater to stabilise or, more importantly, recover. We do have areas where the aquifer is recovering.”

“There are parts where, when compared to the 1990s, have around double the amount (thickness) of fresh water than there was. But there are other areas which are concerning. You asked what the critical point of the aquifer is and this is difficult to answer as different parts of the aquifer respond differently, it’s a living system. We managed to solve problems in the central areas and the groundwater is both increasing in level and thickness. But then we are seeing areas, particularly which are new agricultural areas, where there is a decrease in groundwater.”

The situation in Malta is no longer a question about having X amount of time before reaching critical point, it is more of a management aspect. The idea of a critical point is difficult to assess as we have a system that reacts differently in different areas. Sapiano said that it’s all about management to ensure that such a point is not reached.

He said that the EWA’s job is to analyse and research, supporting the Water Services Corporation as well as ministries in policy development. “Our job is to ensure that our Minister has the correct and factual information on which to base her decisions”.”

He stressed that the aquifer is a resilient system. “If it wasn’t, following the issues in the 80s and early 90s, it would not have recovered in 20 years.”

In terms of plans for the future, he said that the market is developing off-the shelf technology that takes shower water, purifies it and makes it safe for toilet flushing. But this is years away.  We need to focus more on water demand management, being more efficient at all levels.

As for the immediate future, he mentioned the WSC’s Net Zero Water Utility project (to increase water quality to encourage more people to use tap water for drinking purposes rather than having to revert to bottled water). He also said that the Corporation is transforming the way it operates in a way that it would eventually give back as much water as it takes to the natural environment – hence the Net Zero impact. “This will be undertaken through the provision of New Water (to be used in substitution of groundwater) and intended and unintended recharge to augment groundwater supplies.  Achieving this will be a very important milestone – highlighting how groundwater can be effectively protected within a comprehensive management framework.”