Down the drain: each one of us is flushing 32 litres of water every day

The water produced through the expensive and energy-hungry Reverse Osmosis is literally going down the drain. According to hydrologist Manuel Sapiano, the average Maltese was consuming 32 litres of water every day simply to flush the toilet.

That sounds like a very busy toilet, but every single flush actually generates nine litres of perfectly potable water that could be used for far more worthy purposes.

Breaking down Malta’s water domestic demand, Sapiano said the Maltese consumes 32 litres of water per capita per day for toilet flushing, while 43 litres are consumed for personal hygiene. This is followed by 20 litres for washing clothes, 16 litres for dishwashing, just 7 litres for drinking and cooking and 18 litres for other uses.

That's 136 litres - or the equivalent of some 90 bottles of 1.5 litres of mineral water - used every day.

“Taking 2007 as the base year, 67% of the water demand was used for domestic purposes. If self-supply is considered, a Maltese consumes 135 litres per capita per day in the domestic sector,” he said.

Sapiano added that the average water footprint of Malta is 2,216 cubic metres per year per capita, but 92% of this water consumption is imported.

The global average of water footprint is 1,385m³ per year per capita.

Sapiano said that the freshwater availability per capita in the Maltese islands ranks as one of the lowest in the world. Demand for freshwater consumption is mainly found in the domestic sector and in agriculture.

“Our current practices of water supplies call for major reform if we want to ensure the availability of freshwater resources for us and future generations,” Resources Minister George Pullicino said.

“A balance between supply and demand should be struck in light of our environmental constraints as well as our social and economic needs.”

Pullicino’s comments were made during a conference organised by MediWat – an organisation aimed at providing decision makers and stakeholders in the Mediterranean islands with the update know-how necessary to define the strategies for managing local water resources under stress conditions.

MediWat is made up of nine partners coming from six different countries: Malta, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, France and Spain. The Malta Resources Authority (MRA) represents Malta.

Pullicino said that substantial capital investments would be required for new infrastructure in the coming years: “Furthermore operational costs are expected to increase as environmental standards become more stringent and demanding. It has been estimated that the capital investment of more than €200 million is required to implement all measures required by the Water Framework Directive.”

Pullicino said that water conservation is a necessity that each Maltese citizen has to understand: “Public involvement is considered key to the success of water reforms and implementation of this vision.”

Water policy measures are also required to combat declining quality of freshwater resources, he said adding that government has already shown the political will to implement the necessary measures that exist.

Such measures included the monitoring of boreholes and the cleaning up of valleys and reservoirs. Only last summer, a total of 20 valleys and reservoirs were cleaned. Government also invested €56 million in the national flood project to eliminate the problem of flooding in the streets. The project will harvest around 600,000 m³ of rainwater.

Pullicino added that Malta is the first country to be treating all sewage generated and is currently studying EU cohesion funds in order to have a polishing plant within each of the three treatment plans installed.

Sapiano said the Malta Resources Authority and the Water Services Corporation are working on the pilot project aimed at investigating the potential for using treated waste-water that has been polished for the artificial recharge of the aquifers: the sources of groundwater that are at risk of being decimated by excessive extraction.

“If successful, highly polished treated sewage effluent would be used as a source for the direct recharge of groundwater,” Sapiano said.