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The water supply in the Maltese Islands is provided by pumping stations, boreholes, springs, and by desalination operations.

On average from 2002 to 2007, 45.12 per cent of all water production in Malta came from groundwater, whilst 54.88 per cent was generated by desalination plants. Throughout the period under review these percentages fluctuated from one year to the other, although desalinated water always constituted the major share of water produced. From 2002 to 2006 water production from groundwater decreased by an average of 5.39 per cent per annum, whilst from 2006 to 2007 production from this source increased by 6.88 per cent.

On the other hand production by desalination plants showed a fluctuating trend which on average translates into a marginal decrease of 0.72 per cent per annum. If one considers the total amount of water produced during these years, this decreased by an average of 1.85 per cent per annum.

Water production and supply patterns follow each other very closely in Malta. Thus the amount of end-of-year water reserves is fairly stable from one year to another and amounts to about 300,000 cubic metres of water each year. Due to this proximity in production and supply, the end-of-year water reserves, on average amount to just 0.9 per cent of the water produced annually. On the other hand, comparing the water production sources, figures show that from 1997 to 2007, water production has decreased. This decrease was not linear since in various years both sources registered an increase in production, however such increases were not sufficient to offset the overall decrease which was registered. It is interesting to note that 2000 was the only year in which groundwater production surpassed that of desalinated water.

Regarding the amount of water which is lost through leakages in the distribution network, from 2002 to 2007 this amount has decreased every year at varying rates, with the only exception being from 2002 to 2003, when leakage increased by 6.04 per cent. Throughout the period under review, leakage has been reduced by an average of 10.92 per cent per annum, so that by 2007, it was almost halved from the maximum it had reached in 2003.

Statistics show that for the year 2007, the highest contributor to the water supply was from the reverse osmosis plants. Water production from this desalination technology was 10 percent higher that the groundwater production. Such water production amounted to 17 million cubic metres. It is interesting to note that during the month of February the water supply from the groundwater resources was slightly higher than that of the desalination process.

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