Where the parties stand | Water resources and sustainability

While all three parties have addressed water management in their manifestos, only AD refers to the elephant in the room: the private extraction of water from boreholes.

Presently, there are 7,800 registered boreholes in Malta. Only 109 of these have been metered. The private sector is presently extracting 40,000 litres of groundwater per minute, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - and this all for free.

Malta is probably extracting between 35 and 45 million cubic metres per year when it should be extracting 25 million, to allow the aquifer to replenish itself naturally.

The Water Services Corporation is the public entity responsible to provide potable water to consumers. 

44% of its needs are supplied from the groundwater reserve. This is less expensive to extract than the energy-hungry desalination of seawater by Reverse Osmosis. But if the aquifer reserve is depleted it can be rendered unusable because of the intrusion of seawater, which is a direct consequence of borehole drilling.

Simply, if one extracts more water than one is supposed to from Malta's aquifer, seawater rises up into it, and the water becomes saline and unusable.

Dependence on Reverse Osmosis would push the price of water sky high. But Malta could also be under-pricing groundwater by ignoring its environmental and resource cost.

The European Commission has already rapped Malta for the absence of any tariffs on groundwater extraction by farmers and industry and for its failure to include "the resource and environmental costs" in water pricing structures.

Apart from agricultural use, one also finds 31 boreholes used by batching plants, 14 boreholes used by car washes, seven boreholes used by bottling companies and soft drink companies, seven boreholes used by homes for the elderly and schools, six boreholes used by sports facilities and five boreholes used by plant nurseries. All these extract water for free.

Another problem facing Malta is the high presence of nitrates in its groundwater, which comes as a result of the leaking of waste and slurry from farms. Curiously, all three parties in their electoral programme overlook this problem.

Moreover, there is the problem of flooding which comes as a result of the fact that water from rooftops is many cases directly connected to the drain system, thus ending up flooding our streets. This problem will be addressed through a tunneling project, which would divert this water to the sea.

A few weeks before the election an existing legal notice forbidding the disposal of rainwater in the drains was amended, removing this legal requirement.

Treated water from Malta's three sewage treatment plants is also being diverted to the sea.  In 2011, 24 million cubic metres of treated sewage was dumped into the sea, but plans are now underway to further polish this water to make it available for irrigation purposes.

What are the plans of the three parties to address these problems?