Friends of the Earth (Malta) calls on government to issue the first national policy on water, which has not yet been forwarded to Cabinet for approval three years after its formulation in 2004. Considering the scarcity of water on our islands this policy is long overdue.

The government will shortly be spending more than Euro 140 million of EU funds in projects aimed at improving the country's water and wastewater infrastructure. There is the risk that, in the absence of a holistic water policy, Malta will fail to achieve a sustainable water status despite these huge investments. This will in turn threaten our livelihood and the country's economic competitiveness. 

It is a known fact that over-extraction is severely depleting our fresh water reserves. It is outrageous that the greater part of extraction is from unregulated illegal sources. Besides agriculture, this finite resource is being exploited as a cheap substitute to town water by industries (including beverage companies), hotels, commercial establishments and even privately owned swimming pools. The unregulated quality of this water is also posing a serious risk to public health and our tourism industry.

Friends of the Earth Malta is concerned that if the authorities procrastinate on taking action on this, Malta will risk facing further infringements, this time related to the Water Framework Directive.

FoE (Malta) believes that Government should implement the requirements of LN 238 of 2006, which stipulate that each new building and extensions of an existing building should incorporate a cistern for the collection and use of rainwater. Although this legislation was re-introduced on 2 January 2007, enforcement is nonexistent. Domestic rainwater harvesting will result in a decrease in flooding of flood-prone areas, whilst reducing the burden on the potable water supply.

Climate change is very likely to result in a worsening of the situation, with reduced annual rainfall and the loss of some of Malta's groundwater production sources.  If Malta becomes more prone to heat waves and droughts, our consumption levels will further increase, thus necessitating an increase in reverse osmosis production. Considering that the R.O. plants already consume a large percentage of our electricity (and therefore a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions), the imminent water crisis will put additional burden on the energy sector, which is also facing its own difficulties.