Water 'clearly not a priority for government' - hydrologist and Everester Marco Cremona

He emphasised that the government’s failure to address Malta’s critical water situation flies in the face of studies that “show that practically all of our water resources are in a bad state and we run the risk of losing them forever in a few years time.”

The upshot, Cremona said, is the “the complete loss of agriculture (and consequently the countryside), the doubling of Reverse Osmosis (RO) production resulting in the doubling of main water tariffs, and the strategic risk of being completely dependent on our RO plants for all our fresh water needs, including agriculture.”

Reacting to the government’s pledge to finish the Għarb pumping station, Cremona maintained that “from a (fresh)water point of view, this project is not one that government should be proud of (especially in the Eco-Gozo context) as it again shows the complete disinterest of government in recognising sewage as a resource rather than a liability.”

Cremona explains how in Gharb “we had the opportunity of converting sewage into a source of 2nd class water for irrigation in an area of Gozo that suffers from water scarcity.”

The Water Services Corporation (WSC) already possess the technology to do this, Cremona said, but instead the same WSC will be constructing a sewage pipeline spanning across Gozo and pumping sewage across the island only for it to be treated and then dumped into the sea. “All this is to be paid for by the taxpayer, who will not get a single drop of water in return.”

Referring to the government’s intention to clean stormwater reservoirs in Wied ta’ Żejta, and Marsalforn valley and improve stormwater storage facilities for winter months, Cremona questioned why isn’t the government cleaning “all reservoirs and valleys in Malta and Gozo every year, as a matter of course to prevent the damage we experienced only this week?”

He also drew attention to the repairs necessary for the “tens of dehalibitated or abandoned roadside reservoirs and dams all over the Maltese Islands.”

 “It’s useless having proposals or measures listed in national studies (Climate Change Mitigation Strategy, the Water Policy etc.) while the exact opposite occurs on ground-level. Clearly, the Malta Resources Authority is only an authority in name while the WSC (an operator regulated by MRA) does what it wants.”

Amongst the measures government skipped over in the 2011 budget, Cremona lists charges on private boreholes, a budget allocation for upgrading of sewage treatment plans for nationwide provision of 2^nd class water (as opposed to over-exploited groundwater), and a budget allocation for “comprehensive rehabilitation of the multitude of roadside reservoirs and dams to alleviate flooding and enhance groundwater infiltration and yield.”

He also points out how there was “no budgetary allocation to beefing up the Water Directorate – the entity responsible for controlling 8,000+ private boreholes, and WSC (and its massive infrastructural projects and operations), introducing much-needed water laws, enforcing those same laws and regulations, and meeting Malta's obligations with regards to the all-encompassing EU Water Framework Directive.”

Cremona welcomed the long-planned National Flood Relief Project. “This is good news, of course, but one wonders what amount of flood water will be collected and made available for re-use by agriculture during the summer months?”

He nevertheless noted that it “mainly consists of tunnels and channels leading stormwater into the sea, rather than water collecting reservoirs, with little or no regard to rehabilitating existing stormwater collecting infrastructure.”