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13 maltatoday SUNDAY 15 APRIL 2018 News JAMES DEBONO THE hydrologist Marco Cre- mona has pointed out a "massive discrepancy" with past studies on Malta's groundwater extraction which he says may reflect hun- dreds of unregistered boreholes. Data released to MaltaToday shows that total groundwater ex- traction by the agricultural sec- tor is expected to range between eight and 10 million cubic metres a year, a far cry from previous estimates that put groundwater extraction at 20 million cubic metres. The figures show that water ex- tracted from 2,874 agricultural boreholes amounted to just 1.44 million cubic metres. Malta has over 8,000 registered boreholes, but metering of these boreholes was discontinued after 2,874 agricultural and 245 indus- trial boreholes were metered. When the discrepancy of the new figures with past estimates of groundwater extraction was pointed out by MaltaToday, a government spokesperson re- plied that previous estimates provided an indicative "poten- tial" water demand, based on es- timates of land-use by the sector. "The new volumetric data from borehole meters foregoes the need of land-use estimates as it is being based on real data," the spokesperson said. But the spokesperson acknowl- edged that data from metered boreholes provides data only for "abstraction" from boreholes in the two mean sea level aquifer systems, and does not include abstraction from the perched aquifer systems (springs and 'spieri') as well as the "remain- ing unmetered boreholes and other groundwater abstraction sources". But when these omissions are taken in to account "the total groundwater use by the sector is expected to range between eight and 10 million cubic metres a year." This is in sharp contrast with previous estimates and does not take in consideration unregis- tered boreholes. A study by the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2006 had put demand for irrigated water in Malta at 21 million cubic metres. In 2008, a survey estimating the volume of water used for irriga- tion suggested 28.2 million cubic metres of water was used to irri- gate 2,830 hectares of agricultural land in 2010: about 10,000 cubic metres per hectare. Groundwater accounts for most of irrigation in Malta. But that data was based on surveys and actual interviews with hundreds of farmers. Then in 2011 the National Of- fice of Statistics claimed that the amount of irrigation water used by the agricultural sector was 28 million cubic metres, "almost equalling the public water supply produced by the Water Services Corporation." That figure was a massive increase from data sub- mitted in parliament that said 19.5 million cubic metres of wa- ter was extracted by private bore- holes in 2007, far higher than the 14 million cubic metres extracted by the WSC. Irrigated land has increased ex- ponentially in subsequent years even though the total amount of agricultural land in Malta has de- creased. 2017 was a particularly bad year in terms of rainfall, forc- ing farmers to also use their bore- holes in winter. But hydrologist and water activ- ist Marco Cremona has warned of a huge under-registration of extraction. "Whether these esti- mates are the result of the pres- ence of numerous – hundreds, thousands? – unregistered bore- holes, or deficiencies in the me- tering process I wouldn't know." Cremona called for a more de- tailed investigation of the me- tered results "as the magnitude of discrepancy (with past studies) is way beyond acceptable" espe- cially in view of "the substantial investment that went into meter- ing" boreholes. He pointed out that the actual data from the metering pro- cess (1.4 million cubic metres) amounts to only 5% of the figure the NSO had arrived at in 2011 in its detailed one-to-one question- naire with more than 400 farm- ers. Why is ground water important? Groundwater is rainwater that permeates the ground and slowly seeps through porous rock until it reaches the aquifer. Since the only local source of groundwater recharge is rainwater, the amount available for human use is limited to the amount of rain recharg- ing the aquifers. Past estimates placed current groundwater ex- traction at nearly 50 per cent higher than the safe limit. Over- extraction changes the shape of the aquifer, drawing saltwater and increasing salinity in the re- maining groundwater. The gov- ernment has recently embarked on a project of providing free treated sewage water to farmers as an alternative to ground water extraction. jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Groundwater extraction data reveals major discrepancy Total groundwater extraction for agriculture probably ranges between eight and 10 million cubic metres a year, a far cry from previous estimates that put groundwater extraction at 20 million cubic metres MALTA'S area of untilled ag- ricultural land is as large as 700 average-sized football pitches, according to a policy document on which the island's agricultural policy for the next 10 years will be based. Over 500 hectares of land in 2016 consisted of untilled agri- cultural land where "no tillage, no cutting of grasses and no cultiva- tion" took place. This figure is considered "wor- rying" since abandoned agricul- tural land amounts to 5% of the total amount of cultivable regis- tered land. "This indicates that 5% of potentially cultivatable land is being left untilled whilst there are active farmers requesting farm- land consolidation and field rota- tion to produce healthier crops." The policy indicates that this may have its ecological advan- tages as marginal areas that were left untilled are colonised by flora and fauna, therefore regenerating the habitat for biodiversity, which can present an opportunity for eco-tourism and organic farming practices. But in other cases the availabil- ity of tracts of unutilised farmland increases pressures for develop- ment. For example, all recent appli- cations for petrol stations out- side development zones involved tracts of abandoned agricultural land. So is most of the land ear- marked for the American Univer- sity of Malta campus at Zonqor. The problem is interlinked with land ownership patterns. Maltese farmland predominantly consists of government-owned land leased to farmers through agricultural leases (qbiela) that are renewed every year. Such leases were de- termined many years ago based on the cultivation of land at a rent of a few cents per tumulo. Land inheritance through 'qbie- la' passes from parents to siblings and not between siblings. So one major problem partly addressed in changes made in 2012 and 2017 is that when one of the children chooses to transfer his or her share of the farmland to a sibling, this can only be done by first re- linquishing that share back to the parent. That way, farmers who do not have offspring cannot trans- fer the title of their land to other farmers. The actual physical size of par- cels is just one aspect of land frag- mentation and most farmers have become accustomed to tilling a number of separate small fields located in the same area. The fragmentation of agricul- tural land further increases the number of access paths and other facilities in the countryside, which degrades the surrounding land- scape. In 2012, the law was changed to allow land transfer between sib- lings in cases where the recipient is a full-time farmer with a mini- mum annual turnover of €20,000. Then in 2017 land transfers of ag- ricultural land to bona fide farm- ers were allowed, subject to the approval of the Lands Authority's board of governors. The legal notice also caters for agricultural students by providing land on lease at a favourable rate for the first five years. Moreover, the LA can issue agricultural land through a tendering process. But the policy document now says this process has often failed to distinguish between the different uses of agricultural land. Instead it encourages the consolidation of farmland by giving priority to ac- tive farmers, farm-entrepreneurs and young agribusiness graduates "who have a clear business direc- tion in the sector even if the total number of farmers declines". Abandoned farmland spans size of 700 football grounds Over 500 hectares of land in 2016 consisted of untilled agricultural land where "no tillage, no cutting of grasses and no cultivation" took place