15 April 2007 Rating 3% No Comment  

Friends of the Earth (Malta) has emphasised the need for a holistic water policy and has called for the government to issue the first national policy on water. This, it said, still had not been forwarded to the Cabinet for approval three years after its formulation in 2004. The government will shortly be spending more than 140 million Euros of EU funds on 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," FoE said. It argued that over-extraction was severely depleting fresh water reserves. "It is outrageous that the greater part of extraction is from unregulated, illegal sources. Apart from 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 also expressed concern that if the authorities procrastinated over taking action on this, Malta would risk facing further EU infringements, this time related to the Water Framework Directive. It said it believed the government should implement the requirements of LN 238 of 2006, which stipulates that each new building and extension of an existing building should incorporate a cistern for the collection and use of rainwater. Although this legislation was re-introduced on 2nd January 2007, enforcement is non-existent. Domestic rainwater harvesting would also result in a reduction in the flooding of flood-prone areas, whilst reducing the burden on the potable water supply. More information is available from the Friends of the Earth website at www.foemalta.org