Labour MEP Edward Scicluna today called on the European Commission to ensure that the Maltese government complies with the Water Framework Directive to avoid imminent water shortage.

In a parliamentary question, Prof Scicluna warned the Commission that current practices have led to Malta facing an imminent crisis of its groundwater supply.

Prof Scicluna said, “According to scientific evidence Malta has the highest groundwater extraction density in the world. As a result we face the grave possibility that by 2025 we will run out of ground water fit for human consumption.”

The EU’s Water Framework Directive states that Member States must promote sustainable and environmentally friendly water consumption practices.

In 2000, the EU set a deadline of December 2009 for Member States to file their national water management policies on the implementation of the Directive. However, the Maltese government failed to meet the deadline.

Prof Scicluna said, “I want to know what guarantees the Commission can give Maltese citizens that they will not lose their only source of natural groundwater because of their government’s failure to keep to EU law.”

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