Businesses get cheaper water the more they extract from boreholes

It pays to extract large amounts of ground water, according to statistics based on the meter readings of private boreholes carried out between June 2014 and May 2015.

While borehole owners who extract less than 300 cubic metres a year of water end up paying more than they would had they got the same amount from tap water, users who extract over 1,450 cubic metres a year (five times as much), pay only a fourth of the price of tap water.

This emerges from a report presented by the Sustainable Energy and Water Conservation Unit presented to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority in September.

Non-residential users presently pay two cents for every cubic metre of tap water.

The average amount of water extracted from boreholes for agricultural use amounts to 1,528 cubic metres a year while the average amount extracted by the commercial sector, which includes bowsers and industrial users, amounts to 3,530 cubic metres a year.

According to the report the commercial sector accounts for 23% of private ground water use.

This indicates that on average it costs less than 30 cents for commercial users to extract a cubic metre of ground water.

The study was based on a sample of metre readings of 500 to 880 private boreholes registered as being used for agricultural purposes between June 2014 and May 2015 and an unspecified number of private boreholes. 

According to the report “a significant number of users”, who are extracting below average could be paying higher rates than the “production cost” of alternative sources of water.

But the statistics confirm that for the average farmer who consumes more than 1,528 cubic metres of ground water from a depth of 80 metres, it would still be cheaper than “buying” treated sewage at its production cost.

Presently treated sewage is still disposed directly into the sea but plans are underway to further polish treated sewage. The water will be either used to replenish ground water sources or by the agricultural and industrial sectors.

The cost of extracting less than 1,000 cubic metres of water from the water table is more than the cost of producing the same amount of treated sewage effluent. Extracting 800 cubic metres of ground water costs more than producing the same amount of treated sewage which undergoes further “polishing.”    

The financial cost of ground water extraction depends on the volume of water extracted, the power rating of the pumping equipment and the depth of the borehole.