Government to allocate groundwater quotas to farmers

The ministry now intends to apply a derogation and “safeguard the legitimate use of groundwater for agricultural purposes through the allocation of quotas to individual farmers which will ensure that agricultural land has the sufficient allocation of water to remain sustainable.”

But Labour MP Edward Scicluna has demanded that the government does not seek a derogation to extend the 2015 deadline for getting Maltese groundwater to a sustainable and ‘good’ status: “this would be a delaying tactic, which this country can ill afford.”

“Already, independent experts such as hydrologist Marco Cremona and geologist Gordon Knox have estimated that, at the current rate of extraction, Malta’s groundwater will be useless within 15 years. The bottom line is that groundwater – our own water resource – is being extracted as a greater rate than it is being replenished.”

In June, the Commission launched infringement proceedings against the Maltese government following its failure to produce a management plan to protect Malta's water supply.

“We should be thankful for the EU's WFD which is designed to protect the right to a good quality water supply for all Maltese citizens by 2015… the government plans that by 2015 the monitoring and reporting phase would come to an end and the plan of action will come into effect to ensure good water quality by 2027.

“But this government has to wake up and realise that by that date we would not have any potable ground water to manage. It would have run out,” Scicluna said.

The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs said Malta has submitted a draft Water Catchment Management Plan to the European Commission. The submission of the final Management Plan will be possible following the end of the national public consultation period, which comes to an end on 30 November 2010.

The Water Catchment Management Plan also proposes a number of actions which should lead to the achievement of good status in groundwater bodies, the ministry said.

“One of these actions, the implementation of which has already started, requires the metering of all significant private groundwater sources (boreholes). This plan also foresees that, following metering, a number of regulatory measures will be introduced to promote the efficient and sustainable use of groundwater,” the ministry said.

The data collected from the metering exercise will provide detailed and accurate information on the extraction of groundwater. This information will be analysed and used to provide a basis for the introduction of additional regulatory measures.