Water price hike could spell disaster for our water table

James Debono
The shock hike in water tariffs being proposed by government could spell disaster for Malta’s water table, as higher utility bills might tempt more people to buy illegally-extracted water, delivered by bowsers, at very cheap prices.
Yesterday’s announcement by Minister George Pullicino that anyone who fails to register a borehole will be fined falls short of introducing charges which penalise bore hole extraction.
Water extracted from illegal boreholes – literally stealing groundwater from its underground source – is done so indiscriminately that it risks endangering the entire Maltese water table.
When groundwater is extracted without control, more sea water is allowed to seep in the underwater source: a death sentence for Malta’s endangered reserve of cheap water.
The new tariff regime which reflects the real cost of water, rather than the current subsidised rates, foresees a 76% increase in the water bill paid by the average three-person household.
If no clampdown takes place on illegal extraction, the increased demand for water from bowsers can spell the end of Malta’s water table.

Already 43% of the total amount of water produced by the Water Services Corporation (WSC) is extracted directly from the water table.
A cheap source of water, it costs just 25% of the cost of water that is produced by reverse osmosis (RO) plants, which require an enormous amount of electricity to convert sea water into potable water.
If Malta’s source of cheap groundwater is depleted, the WSC will be forced to rely exclusively on RO water, and the government will have no choice but to increase the price of water again.
Only a few years ago, groundwater provided 50% of the WSC’s requirements. This amount has already fallen to 43% today.
To add to the problems of Malta’s water supply, the government still has no plans on how to re-use almost 73,000 cubic metres of ‘second-class water’ that is produced every day after sewage gets treated.
The treated water, which will be converted by three plants, would greatly alleviate the pressure on the water table, as a source of water that can be used for irrigation purposes.
In fact the costs of treating sewage and polishing the second-class water for irrigation is costly in itself. As yet, there is no network that can pump the water down to farmers’ fields.

Endangered supply
Back in 2007 the Food Agricultural Organisation (FAO) had already warned the government it would have to double household water bills, if no action is taken to safeguard Malta’s groundwater resources.
The FAO warned that if groundwater quality continues to deteriorate, at some point domestic water supplies will have to be sourced entirely from more expensive desalinated water produced from RO plants.
Now the government is proposing to increase the price of water, but without announcing any plans to control illegal extraction.
Neither has it announced any plans to encourage the re-use of second-class water produced by sewage treatment plants.
But clamping on illegal boreholes is far from an easy task: the equipment used for illegal boreholing has become more inconspicuous, and pumps are so small that boreholes can even be drilled inside a garage.
In May, Investments Minister Austin Gatt proposed in parliament that the Malta Resources Authority should stop bowsers in the street and ask to see documentation of the origin of the water being carried.
He also proposed a comparison between the water bills and the actual water use of industries, known to be heavy water users, like batching plants.
Hydrologist Marco Cremona advocates an amnesty period to all those who have drilled boreholes without the necessary permit – to encourage them to come forward and register their boreholes, and giving huge fines to those who don’t register.
Yesterday the government heeded Cremona’s recommendation by announcing a new registration scheme and imposing stiff fines on those who fail to do so.
But Cremona had also proposed that boreholes should then be metered and a tariff charged on extracted water so as to create a disincentive on wastage or the sale of water to third parties.

Wasted water
The shortfall in the supply of groundwater can be addressed through the provision of water from alternative sources, namely treated sewage effluent, and stormwater/rainwater harvesting in wells.
Malta will soon be able to tap 72,700 cubic metres a day which can be re-used for irrigation purposes instead of being disposed into the sea.
This source of second-class water will be available when all three sewage treatment plants, required by EU law, will be fully operational by the end of 2009.
But in the absence of any concrete plans for re-use, the Cirkewwa plant which started its operations yesterday will be discharging 6,500 cubic metres of treated water into the sea.
Despite his commitment to clamp down on illegal extraction, on various occasions Austin Gatt expressed scepticism on the re-use potential of treated effluent, arguing that this would only be feasible if farmers are willing to pay for it.
Gatt has already declared that it would be cheaper to dispose the new supply of water to the sea than to deliver it to farmers. He pointed out in parliament that the water from the sewage treatment plants will not be ready for irrigation as it would have to be ‘polished’ – in layman’s terms, treated yet again.
“Would farmers be ready to pay for the cost of the water?” the minister asked.

jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt

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