James Debono
2,643 new applications were presented for the registration of illegal boreholes following a registration scheme launched by Resources and Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino.
This brings the number of registered boreholes in the country to 8,643 after 6,000 boreholes were previously registered in a similar exercise carried out by the Alfred Sant administration in 1997.
Owners of an illegal borehole in their property who fail to register are now liable to pay a maximum fine of €18,600 – the same fines imposed by the Sant administration in 1997.
Registration of boreholes costs €230. The clampdown on borehole users came in the wake of a letter of formal notice sent by the European Commission. Malta is in breach of a directive establishing a common European framework on the management of water sources. The infringement concerns Malta’s failure to monitor the chemical and quantitative status of its groundwater resources. Member states are obliged to submit reports of their monitoring to the Commission, but Malta has so far failed to send any reports.
Pullicino said back in October at the launch of the scheme that still needed the “full picture” on boreholes before introducing meters that could charge registered borehole users. He himself admitted Malta was extracting 34 million cubic metres of water from its water table, when it should be extracting 23 million cubic metres a year.
Pullicino also made it clear that registration does not entail the legalisation of boreholes which have been registered. “One should not interpret the notification of boreholes as an automatic right to extract water… the aim of this exercise is not that of issuing permits for borehole users but to give us a full picture.”
The only entity authorised to extract water in Malta is the Water Services Corporation.
Although the drilling of boreholes is already illegal, Pullicino has also declared a moratorium on the drilling of new boreholes for the next year.
But while anyone drilling new boreholes will be liable to a maximum €68,600 fine for failing to register and for breaching the moratorium, it will be business as usual for those who have registered their boreholes under the new registration scheme who will still not pay a cent for the water they extract.
Pullicino promised a public consultation document aimed at ensuring the sustainability of Malta’s underground water resources by 2009. He did not exclude charging the extraction from boreholes.
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