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James Debono
Farmers in the northernmost part of Malta could soon end up being deprived of water, due to the massive illegal extraction of ground water which has surpassed the levels of legal extraction, a hydrological report presented by the Malta Resources Authority warns.
The report dates back to 2004 and was unearthed by Resources Minister Ninu Zammit in reply to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo last week.
Bartolo made the questions after receiving complaints from farmers who experienced a shortage of water during the past summer.
The MRA had conducted its report following complaints by farmers that boreholes belonging to the Riviera Hotel were depleting their ground water sources. Although these boreholes were subsequently shut down by the MRA, farmers in the area have continued to experience problems despite the increase in rainfall in the past year.
The MRA report had already made it clear that closing the hotel’s boreholes was not enough to redress the shortage of ground water. According to the report the hotel operations “had only brought forward a situation which would have inevitably occurred in the next few years.”
“The depletion of the aquifer will result in the encroachment of saline water and the quality of ground water in the region will inevitably deteriorate,” the report warns.
The major threats to the aquifer come from illegal or unregistered boreholes used for commercial purposes.
It is well known fact that a number of hotels in Malta buy water extracted illegally from boreholes. Illegal extraction from Marfa is calculated to be equal or even greater than legal extraction, where it is estimated that 325,000 cubic metres of water annually is extracted from illegal sources. This is equivalent to half the total amount extracted from the aquifer.
According to the report the current extraction of 650,000 cubic metres of water is dangerously close to the estimated annual recharge figure. The annual inflow of ground water is set to be around 750,000 cubic metres.
“A number of these sources are operated throughout the whole year and are suspected to be used for commercial purposes,” the report states. The shift from wind-operated pumps whose operation is limited by the availability of wind, to electricity-driven pumps has also increased the amount of water extracted from the boreholes.
Ominously, the report warns that this situation is expected to occur in all aquifers where an unsustainable rate of underground pumping is maintained. The report even expresses concern on the depletion of Malta’s main underground water source – the mean sea level aquifer.
The report recommends a temporary halt to all land reclamation practices in the region as well as the sealing off of all illegal or unregistered pumping sources. It also suggests that the volume of exploitable ground water is determined and allocated to registered farmers on a quota-by-quota basis, reflecting the amount of irrigated land possessed by each farmer: “These quota will have to be enforced if necessary even through the metering of the sources.”
According to the report, the proposed management plan for the Marfa aquifer should serve as a pilot project for the conservation of other aquifers in the Maltese islands.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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