I am elated that two ex-WSC chairmen have publicly acknowledged that Malta is facing a water crisis and that they think that “the problem must be addressed” (Sunday Times, 31 January). Finally I’m not a lone voice in the wilderness any more.
The question however needs to be asked: what did these two gentlemen do to avert the water crisis when they were heading the country’s public water utility? It is a known fact that our aquifers have been over-exploited since the mid-1970s when the then-Water Works Department drilled around 150 boreholes to augment the potable water supply. The drilling of private boreholes started soon after, to a stage where we now have more than 8,500 registered boreholes (plus an unknown number of unregistered boreholes) – probably the highest density of boreholes in the world. Conservative estimates put the amount of over-extraction (i.e. extraction above sustainable levels) at a massive 11 billion litres a year – equivalent to the domestic consumption of 335,000 people.
The consequence of this uncontrolled extraction is that our water reserves have now been severely depleted and its quality compromised to the extent that WSC is being forced to decommission its groundwater production sources because of poor quality. The amount of public (i.e. WSC) extraction has decreased from 18 billion litres in 1996 to less than 12 billion litres in 2006. This cutback in extraction is leading to an increased reliance on desalination. Of course, desalinated water is many times more expensive than groundwater – which is one of the reasons why water tariffs are on the rise – and will continue to increase until this problem is addressed.
The WSC – during the tenure of the above-mentioned ex-Chairmen – turned a blind eye to the very evident deterioration of the aquifer, despite the fact that the aquifer’s ability to continue to provide a sustainable amount of free water was fundamental to WSC’s remit to provide affordable town water to the population.
These were the days before the water regulator (Malta Resources Authority) was set up which means that the WSC also had the legal and moral duty to protect our water resources. And yet the over-exploitation and contamination of our aquifers continued unabated to the extent that we are now practically at a point of no return. It is big of these gentlemen to inform us now that we have a problem on our hands. These gentlemen were fully aware of the consequences of inaction; they were aware of the strategic risk and the economic consequences of not protecting our aquifer and they were (or should have been) well aware of the fact that the sustainability of the aquifers hinged on the ability to decouple agriculture from groundwater extraction. The latter is only possible through the extensive re-use of the effluent from the still-to-be-constructed sewage treatment plants in agriculture – as a substitute to groundwater. The responsibility to design and build sewage treatment plants was and remains WSC’s.
The agricultural sector in Malta has a water demand of approximately 20 billion litres every year – which is being met through groundwater extraction and to a lesser extent, the use of treated effluent from the 1983 Sant Antnin Sewage Treatment Plant. Agriculture is the biggest user of groundwater in the Maltese Islands. The amount of sewage to be treated by our new treatment plants (and the potential production of treated effluent arising thereof) is also 20 billion litres – which implies that it is theoretically possible to completely meet agricultural demand solely through the use of treated effluent. In this scenario, groundwater extraction would decrease by 20 billion litres a year, enough to ensure that the population of this country can continue to enjoy a sustainable and affordable supply of town water.
However, under these gentlemen’s tenure, sewage was seen (and continues to be seen) as a liability rather than a resource and by the time the Malta South sewage treatment plant is constructed (sometime in 2011? – when it should have been operational by 31 March 2007) we would have spent tens of millions of Euro of EU funds and taxpayers’ money on infrastructure that will not be able to recover a single drop of water for re-use. The powers that be decided to build treatment plants that are designed to treat sewage for disposal into the sea. So much so that we built them at the exact locations where sewage was discharged into the sea, that is Cumnija l/o Mellieha, Ras il-Hobz in Gozo and in Xghajra l/o Zabbar. Indeed, the WSC’s mission statement still talks of “disposing of wastewater safely” instead of re-use. Even if the brand new sewage treatment plants were to be retrofitted so as to be able to produce water that would be suitable for irrigation, the cost of transporting the effluent from the treatment plants to the agricultural areas where the water can be used will be prohibitively high.
A few years ago, during Michael Falzon’s chairmanship, the WSC issued a contract for the construction of a sewage treatment plant at Ic-Cumnija – a remote area behind Ghadira in Mellieha. The plan was to pump sewage from the Qawra-Bugibba-St Paul’s Bay catchment (as well as Mellieha and Mgarr) up three high hills to the treatment plant for disposal into the sea. There is hardly any agricultural land in the vicinity of the plant; full utilisation of the effluent would require that it be pumped to the agricultural areas of Burmarrad/Maghtab, the hotels in Qawra/Bugibba and the landfills of Maghtab/Ghallis – that is, where the sewage is originating from! A proposal for constructing the treatment plant at Ghallis was defeated because the WSC allocated zero monetary value to the treated effluent! This decision has now condemned the agricultural community in the North of Malta to a future of complete dependence on increasingly saline groundwater.
Not content with having messed up the water situation in Malta’s North, the powers that be persisted in repeating the same mistake – and this time at a much larger scale – by deciding to build a large single sewage treatment plant at one end of the island to the East (Xghajra). The greater part of the country’s agricultural land lies in the central and Western parts of the island. Sewage from Dingli and Rabat will be transported across the length of the island to Zabbar for treatment; and then may have to be transported back to its place of origin if re-used – by means of a still-to-be-constructed piped network or by water tankers (bowsers). Unbelievable.
And now these same people who took these decisions have the cheek to inform us that the country has a water “problem that must be addressed”.
I appeal to government to immediately consider the scrapping the Malta South Sewage Treatment plant project and set the wheels in motion to construct a smaller sewage treatment plant at Mriehel to treat the sewage from the west and central parts of Malta (Dingli, Rabat, Mtarfa, Zebbug, Siggiewi, Attard, Balzan, parts of Birkirkara and Qormi). This plant will serve as a regional centre for the production and distribution of second-class water for use in agriculture and industry. Surplus effluent (during the winter months) should be discharged (in a controlled manner) into rehabilitated valleys, disused quarries and soakaways so as to replenish the aquifer.
The existing Sant Antnin sewage treatment plant should be modernised so as to treat the sewage from the other parts of the island, and produce a high-quality effluent. The plant will double up as a regional distribution centre for second-class water in the southeast of Malta.
In this manner, Malta will be served with an affordable, consistent and reliable source of alternative water that will sustain irrigated agriculture throughout the country, reduce groundwater extraction and increase replenishment thus increasing the long-term availability of ‘free’ groundwater for an affordable town water supply, and also reduce the country’s dependency on desalination.
Malta is heading towards a brick wall and the authorities are reluctant to take their foot off the pedal. We are still in a position to avert disaster but government must take some bold decisions. It would be grossly irresponsible to build the Malta South sewage treatment where and as proposed. I appeal to the Prime Minister to take stock of the consequences of pursuing this unsustainable course of action as it will spell disaster for the country.
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