Wading in the water

It all started with Alternattiva Demokratika's deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo raising one of the few meaningful issues in the Xarabank clash between deputy leaders, which left a poor Anglu Farrugia on the receiving end of Simon Busuttil's arsenal of sound bites.

In his allocated eight minutes of time in the 2 hour debate, Cacopardo questioned Labour's commitment to lower water and electricity bills, pointing out the EU has already rapped Malta for its water pricing system, which fails to give a price to ground water extraction.

Anglu Farrugia reacted to Cacopardo by telling viewers that Labour's commitment was limited to the electricity component of utility bills, and not to the water component. The savvy Simon Busuttil could not resist playing the populist card: asking, "Is labour going to decrease electricity bills only to increase water bills?" 

In so doing, instead of addressing the concerns raised by Cacopardo on the sustainability of current rates of ground water extraction, he simply pressed on to score yet another goal in his knock-out performance.

After the break, Farrugia, probably prompted by the spin doctors at Mile Ened, had to recant, saying that the decrease in electricity prices would result in a decrease of water prices since half of Malta's water production came from electricity-powered reverse osmosis plants.

The next day Labour leader Joseph Muscat promised that under Labour, water prices would go down too.

In reality, Muscat is ignoring that the other half of Malta's water supply comes from boreholes at a cost, which is a fraction of reverse osmosis.

He also ignored the fact that the Commission has already rapped Malta for not giving a price to ground water.

If such a price is set up, both private extractors and the Water Services Corporation will have to start to pay for it. This was confirmed by the Commission itself in reply to questions by MaltaToday.

Therefore, irrespective of any decrease in the electricity component, the price of water will probably have to go up irrespective of who is elected to power in the next election. 

Added to this is that the investment in water treatment plants is not yet factored in the present pricing structure, something which is also made obligatory by the EU's water framework directive. 

Neither are consumers being billed for disposing run-off water in the sewage network, causing floods in the process.

Moreover, considering the wasteful practices of many Maltese, sending the message that water prices should go down is politically inappropriate. 

The reality is that most households are already paying a discounted price due to the widespread use of roof storage tanks which require the use of an "indirect plumbing system" - which results in less revenue for the Water Services Corporation due to under-registration of water.

Decreasing water bills at the present moment simply defies the need to emphasise water conservation at household level. Muscat is once again resorting to populism instead of lambasting government for its complete neglect of water issues characterised by a laissez-faire regime.

For despite the issue of a water policy and repeated commitments, ground water exploitation by bowsers, producers of mineral water, batching plants, car washes and farmers extract water at no cost at all.

While in the case of agriculture there is an argument to introduce tariffs gradually and substitute ground water extraction with the re-use of treated sewage (which needs an added investment in extra polishing which has to be ultimately factored in water pricing), the procrastination on imposing tariffs on other sectors remains one of the greatest scandals in our country.

Still unfortunately in the clash of sound bites, water is not a sexy electoral issue. For all our talk on the "common good" ignores the most precious resource of all, the water which lies beneath us.