Agricultural borehole is sucking up as much as 34 million bottles of water every year

Ground water accounts for 86% of the water consumed by the agricultural sector

One agricultural borehole has extracted 67,735 cubic metres of water in 2015, the equivalent of nearly 34 million two-litre bottles of mineral water in a single year.

Another source extracted 34,000 cubic metres and three other sources between 18,000 cubic metres and 22,000 cubic metres.

This emerged from a sample of 460 agricultural boreholes taken by the Sustainable Energy and Water Conservation Unit in 2015.

On average 2,193 cubic metres of water were extracted by the agricultural boreholes included in the sample. 

The study confirms that it pays to extract large amounts of ground water. The cost of extracting 2,200 cubic metres of water is estimated to be €880 a year (40 cents per cubic metre). On the other hand the cost of extracting 200 cubic metres would be €678 (€3.39 per cubic metre). The cost includes energy consumption, the capital investment and maintenance costs.

The study shows that most water is extracted in May, July and August.

Currently ground water accounts for 86% of the water consumed by the agricultural sector. Only 9% comes from rainwater while 5% consists of treated water. 

The situation is described as “unsustainable” by Manuel Sapiano and has to be addressed through a more efficient use of water and the use of new sources like treated sewage whose water is still disposed in the sea. 

The installation of purification plants in Malta’s three sewage treatment plant would result in seven million cubic metres of water which would be made available to agriculture.  Sapiano describes this water as “better than ground water” as it has lower levels of salinity and is more chemically balanced. 

By 2021 it is projected that 31% of agricultural needs will be derived from treatment plants, 59% will come from ground water and 10% from rain.