From MRA to WSC to ARMS and back again…

A question sent by MaltaToday to the Malta Resources Authority on the amount of ground water extracted by commercial companies like batching plants, car washes and bottling companies, has remained unanswered despite having been successively passed on to two other government entities before being returned to MRA.

MaltaToday asked the authority to specify the amount of water extracted from different industrial and other commercial, non-agricultural sectors in 2010 and 2011.

Initially the MRA spokesperson referred MaltaToday to the Water Services Corporation as the entity responsible both for the installation of meters, and the taking of readings from such meters. 

But the WSC referred MaltaToday to Arms Ltd as the entity responsible for meters. Subsequently Arms Ltd replied that the “MRA are responsible for (and able to) providing this information”.

When the MRA was informed that neither the WSC or Arms Ltd could provide this information, the authority replied that so far 124 commercial boreholes have been metered by the Water Services Corporation.

But the MRA only “has information about one reading taken”. For reasons unknown, the contents of this reading were not revealed.

The recently published annual report of the MRA for 2010 includes a list of “metered commercial and industrial ground water sources”.

According to the report these included 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, 6 boreholes used by sports facilities and 5 boreholes used by nurseries.

The report suggests that 79 ground water sources have been metered for more than a year. The MRA’s reply indicates that the number of metered sources for non agricultural activities has now risen to 124.

In June an MRA spokesperson had confirmed that 109 meters have been installed and 30 other meters were pending installation by Water Services Corporation. A further 117 meters for commercial activities, mostly belonging to water suppliers, still had to be installed.

Even on that occasion the MRA could not provide information on the amount of water extracted as the he data collected so far was “not enough to provide a clear picture of what is being extracted by each sector”.