ADPD-The Green Party has highlighted that with summer round the corner, water consumption is expected to increase dramatically. Whether for drinking, watering or washing, water is an important resource.
The Party pointed out that however, in Malta very little importance is given to water in spite of the fact that we do not have natural sources of fresh water such as rivers.
Architect Carmel Cacopardo, Deputy Chairperson of ADPD, said that “according to the Water Exploitation Index Plus (WEI+), which measures water scarcity, Malta was in second place following Cyprus. Our forefathers used to store rainwater in wells. This practice has also been considered a legal obligation for nearly a hundred and fifty years, however, little is being done to ensure that these laws are enforced.”
“Just look at our roads after some rain and you will realise that very little is being collected for storage. Large quantities of rainwater end up on the roads and in the sewage system,” he added. “So besides wasting water, we also overload the sewage treatment plants with large quantities of water. The end result is sewage overflow.”
He went on to ask: “what the Planning Authority and the Water Services Corporation are doing to assure that rainwater is collected in our wells? We can look to our flooded roads for the answer to that. Very little, if anything. It would have been different if we had better quality roads to deal effectively with rainstorms. The storm that we witnessed in the past days was the answer.”
“However, instead of seeing things improve, we are seeing the opposite. The storage and use of rainwater would reduce pressure on other sources of water that we currently use, which is the little remaining groundwater and the water which is purified by reverse osmosis, said Cacopardo. “We had the opportunity to invest millions of euros into this when tunnels were being excavated to collect accumulated stormwater. Instead of harvesting this stormwater, most of it ends up dumped in the sea.”
ADPD-The Green Party Chairperson Sandra Gauci said that climate change plays an important part in any issues concerning water. “The threat of desertification is also affecting Malta, aggravating the water problem. The extremely hot summers that we are having, and winters which are akin to those in a tropical climate, are showing us that change is happening fast.”
She warned that, “as a country we should be cautious and do what we can to combat climate change. The fact that we are a small island state is not an excuse we can hide behind. There is a need for a politics that truly takes on these extremely important challenges. There is the need for measures for water conservation, and which are taken into account when we build and repair our roads.”
Ms Gauci concluded by saying, “water is not an infinite source, and for a country that strives to be a competitive country and a tourist destination of excellence in the year 2025, this is unacceptable. The government must be at the vanguard of water conservation. If a project does not meet these criteria, it should not be given the go-ahead. Such is the neglect of the essential issue of resource use, including of water, that it is not even tackled seriously in Vision 2050, which has been ‘welcomed’ by both government and the parliamentary opposition. We must treat water seriously.”
File photo: Gozo News/Alain Salvary