Żminijietna criticises MRA report and plans on the use of water
Left-wing think tank Żminijietna said plans the Water Catchment Management policy is lenient on who damages the environment, and tough with households.
“The report fails to give a real solution to this problem, where several companies are extracting an excessive use of underground water at a ridiculous price of €1.75 cents per mtr/cube, while households pay €5.50 cents per mtr/cube,” spokesperson David Pisani said.
“It is condemnable the fact, that MRA appears to adopt the same method used in the case of the energy tariffs, by increasing drastically the price of the basic consumption of water. We appeal to MRA to change its methodology to one that penalizes wasteful practices and not basic consumption.
“Many families are experiencing a reduction in the standard of living due to the anti social methods presently in the use, in energy consumption.”
Żminijietna criticised the lack of urgency that is being implemented to install water meters on the 8,000 registered boreholes. The current rate is of 26 meter installations over a period of six months. “This means that the entire process, when it will be completed would take more than a hundred years. This means that the monitoring process with regards use of groundwater will definitely not be completed in the near future,” Pisani said.
“It is worth noting that the existing tariffs price of water for domestic use, are three times more than that for commercial use. We call on the MRA to protect the basic consumption of water for domestic use and raise the rate for commercial use, so the difference in revenue to the Government can be used for capital projects addressing the protection and storage of rainwater.”
