Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1088108
NEWS 5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 MARCH 2019 l-Università IL-FESTIVAL TAL-KTIEB FUQ IL-KAMPUS 2019 27-28 March, 9 am-4 pm University Quadrangle, Msida discussions PRESENTATIONS interviews ANIMATED READINGS quizzes BOOK LAUNCHES AND BOOK PRESENTATIONS workshops FILMS RELATED TO LITERATURE a book cover exhibition LANGUAGE DISCUSSIONS guided tours LIVE MUSIC WITH THE BUSKER CAMPUS_BOOK_FESTIVAL-24_5x18-VER-3-PRINT-MALTATODAY.pdf 1 28/02/2019 18:42 JAMES DEBONO THE equivalent of an impres- sive 115 million bottles of mineral water (of the stand- ard two-litre variety) gets pumped up from just four Maltese boreholes each year, statistics from the Energy and Water Agency show. Each borehole is pumping over 50,000 cubic metres an- nually, three of which were in excess of 60,000 cbm. The four boreholes account for a minimum of 9% of all groundwater extracted by metered boreholes, but in Malta users are still not ex- pected to pay for extraction of water from the national water table. Altogether, there were 245 commercial boreholes in op- eration in 2018, water extrac- tion decreased from 644,893 cbm in 2017 to 527,294 cbm. But another 2,873 boreholes used for agricultural purposes saw extraction increase from 1.44 million cbm in 2017, to 2.06 million cbm in 2018. Globally, it means metered groundwater extraction in- creased by 24% from 2.1 mil- lion cbm to 2.6 million cbm in 2018. Moreover, while in 2017 the highest abstraction – the technical word for water ex- traction – from a single agri- cultural borehole was slightly in excess of 30,000 cubic me- tres, in 2018 more than five agricultural boreholes ex- tracted over 30,000 cbm. And in in 2018, eight com- mercial boreholes were ex- tracting over 30,000 cbm an- nually, two of which in excess of 60,000 cbm, when com- pared to 2017 when just one commercial borehole extract- ed over 30,000 cbm. Still, the vast majority of agricultural boreholes (99%) extract less than 10,000 cbm annually. 92% of metered commercial boreholes also extract less than 10,000 cu- bic metres a year. That means that while on average a com- mercial borehole extracted 717 cbm, the average agricul- tural borehole extracted 2,152 cbm. Since agricultural boreholes are more numerous, they also account for 80% of the water extracted. The amount of groundwater extracted in Malta is prob- ably higher than that quoted in these statistics, because of the 4,368 registered ground- water sources used for agri- culture only 2,873 have been metered. Omitted from the metering process are a number of old hand-dug wells. The number of metered boreholes has re- mained the same as last year. Moreover, a further 738 agricultural boreholes and 23 commercial ones are not equipped with automated data transmission. In these boreholes metering data is still collected manually and could not be provided. These boreholes are located in re- mote locations, where sig- nal shadowing is difficult as transmission is impeded by the presence of structures in the vicinity. However, installation of au- tomated data transmission modules is still ongoing. The agency was unable to indicate how much water is extracted for the specific production of mineral water: when bore- holes were registered in 1997 and 2008, the bottled water producers were included in the more generic "food and beverage" category. Plans are currently under- way to increase the supply of 'new water' derived from sew- age treatment plants to farm- ers through dispensers, in a bid to further reduce ground- water extraction. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Groundwater extraction up by 24% Over 230 million litres of water extracted annually by just four boreholes Agricultural Commercial Over 60,000 cbm 1 2 50,001-60,000 cbm 0 1 40,001-50,000 cbm 1 1 30,001-40,000 cbm 3 4 20,001-30,000 cbm 4 2 10,001-20,000 cbm 21 8 Under 10,000 cbm 2,105 204 Unknown 783 23