Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/963162
13 JAMES DEBONO TWO boreholes were extracting more than 30,000 cubic metres of water – the equivalent of 15,000 two-litre bottles of mineral water each in 2017. But some form of action has been taken to curtail extraction from an agricultural borehole which was sucking more than 67,000 cubic metres of groundwa- ter in 2015, a government spokes- person has confirmed. Action in these cases consists in "support" to the highest extrac- tors "to correct their operational practices, increase their use ef- ficiencies and hence reduce their total abstraction", the spokesper- son said. The National Agricultural Poli- cy document referred to "a stag- gering 67,735 cubic metres which were being extracted from one borehole", reported in a survey of 460 metered boreholes carried out in 2015. "This implies that groundwa- ter extracted from this particular borehole exceeds the total amount abstracted from 231 boreholes ex- tracting less than 1,000 cubic me- tres," the policy report stated. The government spokesperson confirmed that action was taken and "abstraction from this source has been addressed", and that in 2017 the highest abstraction was registered from a single agricul- tural borehole in 2017 which "was slightly in excess of 30,000 cubic metres." Data is now also being collected from all metered boreholes. This showed 1,447,825 cubic metres extracted from 2,874 ag- ricultural boreholes and 644,893 cubic metres extracted from 245 industrial or commercial bore- holes. The indication is that while commercial boreholes are ex- tracting an average of 2,632 cubic metres a year, agricultural bore- holes are only extracting 504 cu- bic metres a year. Two boreholes – one industrial and another agricultural – report- ed extracting more than 30,000 cubic metres of water which is equivalent to 15 million two-litre bottles of mineral water. Less than half of registered boreholes metered The government spokesperson also confirmed that the ground- water source metering process has been finalised "since meters have been installed in all cases where these could be installed." A total of 2874 agricultural boreholes and 245 commercial boreholes have been metered. This implies that 4,939 registered boreholes have not even been me- tered. Moreover, data collected in 2017 shows that 2.1 million cubic me- tres were extracted from metered sources. But previous estimates suggested that 19.5 million cubic metres of water were extracted from private boreholes in 2007, even higher than the 13 million cubic metres of water extracted by the Water Services Corporation. This either suggests that previ- ous estimates were wrong, or that most water is being extracted ei- ther from non-metered registered boreholes or from boreholes which have not even been registered. According to the government spokesperson, the remaining boreholes are being "followed and addressed on a case by case basis by the Malta Resources Authority and the Water Services Corpora- tion." The government spokesper- son gave a variety of reasons why boreholes have not been metered. These include issues related to land ownership, such as when the source owner has died, and cases where the source is not being used due to inheritance related issues. There are also cases where the source does not have a fixed pumping device to which the me- ter can be installed or where the depth of the borehole was too low. The law itself precludes the me- tering of sources which do not have a mechanical device installed to abstract groundwater. There have even been cases where the land in question was agricultural at the time of regis- tration but has since been built up. Low-yield domestic 'spieri' (old wells) in perched aquifer systems are also exempted from metering. Roughly half of the boreholes currently known to the authori- ties were registered in 1997. How- ever, in 2008, the government had issued a legal notice granting an amnesty to those individuals who had not registered their boreholes by that date, leading to the regis- tration of 2,537 new boreholes. maltatoday SUNDAY 8 APRIL 2018 News network and will involve the in- stallation of around 140 dispens- ing points. The project will be led by the Water Services Corpora- tion and may be part-financed through EAFRD funds. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Only 3119 out of 8058 registered boreholes are metered 30,000m3 of water extracted from two boreholes in 2017 low on