The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) together with the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) obtained a quarter of a million euros from the EU to implement a project intended to help Malta to ensure long-term sustainable management of all water resources, including groundwater, coastal water and inland surface water. Both entities have teamed up with the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning and with the experts from the International Office of Water to deliver this project.

Since Malta joined the EU in 2004, the EU Water Framework Directive has become part of the Maltese legislation. The legislation assigns the Malta Resources Authority the responsibility for groundwater protection while MEPA is responsible for inland surface waters and for coastal waters protection.

Before any meaningful steps for the protection of water resources can be taken, it is necessary to prepare and plan, which is precisely what this project, funded under the EU Transition Facility programme, intends to deliver.

Together with their international partners, MEPA and MRA will identify and characterise water bodies, analyse pressures and impacts for each water body, and create a programme of measures detailing concrete management steps. An economic analysis will be carried out to assess the cost effectiveness of each measure and their impacts on different economic sectors. Once all the appropriate measures have been selected, a Water Catchment Management plan will be drawn up with the involvement of all stakeholders.

Implementation of this Plan will help to improve freshwater quality and availability, protect the environment and conserve ecosystems. As the country with the smallest freshwater reserves in the Mediterranean, there is little doubt that protection of Malta’s water resources is critical, not only environmentally, but also economically and socially.

Besides helping MEPA and MRA to finalise the Plan, the project will also provide training for staff involved in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Throughout the project, a number of stakeholder consultation workshops will be conducted, and the information generated will be widely disseminated to the public.

The project should be completed by July 2009, under the supervision of the Climate Change and Marine Policy Unit at MEPA, the Water Directorate at MRA, and the EU & Multilateral Affairs Unit of MEPA, which helped to secure EU funding for this initiative.