James Debono 10% of boreholes drilled in Malta are not used for either agricultural or industrial purposes, but exclusively for domestic use, official statistics from the resources ministry show.
The ‘declared use’ of 806 out of 7,431 registered boreholes is domestic, and consequently these households have an unlimited access to free groundwater because the boreholes are neither metered nor charged by the authorities. 755 of these “domestic” boreholes were registered in 1997 while a further 51 were registered in 2008.
The resources ministry recently announced it intends to meter borehole extraction, but no clear commitment exists whether this extraction will be charged.
91 boreholes are also used for industrial purposes and a further 37 boreholes are used specifically for the production of food and beverages. Back in 1997, there were 47 industrial boreholes.
This means that a number of businesses are also exploiting this free supply of water for their own benefit. General Soft Drinks, the bottlers of Coca-Cola, have admitted to getting half its mix to produce table water from its three registered boreholes, and insists it is presently extracting “less than 0.15%” of the 34 million cubic metres of groundwater extracted annually in Malta – which would amount to an annual 51,000 cubic metres, or the equivalent of 26 million bottles of table water every year.
Groundwater extraction by the Water Services Corporation (WSC) has already declined by 36% over the past decade, because of a dramatic increase in salinity creeping into the Maltese underground water table. The salinity is generated by sea water intruding into the groundwater sources, which lose pressure when too much water is extracted from boreholes.
Malta’s aquifer can endure a sustainable extraction of between 12 to 23 million cubic metres every year.
But studies show that the island is extracting 35 million cubic metres from both private and public boreholes – at least 12 million cubic metres more than it should.
The outright majority of boreholes, 5,731, are used for irrigation purposes.
Significantly 2,282 boreholes are found in Gozo, representing 31% of the total number of boreholes in the Maltese islands. Xaghra and Nadur have more boreholes than Maltese rural localities like St Paul’s Bay, Mellieha and Siggiewi. The only Maltese locality with more boreholes than these two Gozitan localities is Rabat, which has a total of 1,192 registered boreholes.
Between 1997 and 2008 boreholes have increased sharply in the south (Zejtun and Qrendi) but also in affluent, urban localities like Iklin, Attard and Swieqi.
In Swieqi the number of boreholes has shot up from 13 to 42 while in Attard the number of boreholes has increased from 36 to 90.
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