The first national project of its kind in Europe has been launched in Malta, with a nationwide testing system installed underground on agricultural land which is set to study, monitor, and improve the quality of groundwater, which aims to decrease chemical pollution for water.
The Government said this project is being led by the Energy and Water Agency within the Ministry for Energy, Enterprise, and Sustainable Development, and partially co-financed through the European Cohesion Funds.
It is being done in collaboration with Sensoil, who created the technology. The water monitoring system will analyse the quality of the groundwater. Before implementing the project in Malta, the company has been researching for over 15 years and has worked on more than 100 sites globally.
The monitoring systems are going to be spread over 14 agricultural sites around Malta, making use of different agricultural practices. Each identified site uses different agricultural practices so that the data analysed covers a different typology of agricultural land.
It will analyse the water which goes through the soil and rocks before reaching groundwater, thus monitoring any levels of pollution that may be found in the water.
The government said that this will provide farmers with the necessary information on when and how to apply fertilisers, leading to more sustainable practices.
During a visit at one of the sites, Minister for Energy, Enterprise, and Sustainable Development Miriam Dalli, said that “this project will help farmers to identify water contamination, and this will result in better quality water with an immediate effect.”
Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said that there are ongoing initiatives with an investment of €24 million, co-financed with European funds, to create awareness on the general use and the importance of water and its conservation of this resource.
Photo: DOI/Jason Borg