Why are we not harvesting our rainwater, ADPD asks

This previous week’s huge rainstorm was one more reminder of the authorities’ incapability to correctly harvest Malta’s rainwater, the Inexperienced Get together stated on Saturday.

“The storage and use of rainwater would scale back strain on different sources of water that we presently use, which is the little remaining groundwater and the water which is purified by reverse osmosis. 

“We had the opportunity to invest millions of euros into this when tunnels were being excavated to collect accumulated stormwater.  Instead of harvesting this stormwater, most of it ends up dumped in the sea,” ADPD deputy chief Carmel Cacopardo stated at a press convention outdoors Water Companies Company workplaces in Luqa on Saturday morning.

Greater than 36mm of rain fell on Malta on Thursday – greater than 3 times the common for all of Might. However virtually all that water drained into the ocean or sewage system, as water catchment techniques are restricted and legal guidelines requiring homes to have wells are poorly enforced.

Cacopardo and Gauci talking outdoors WSC workplaces in Luqa. Photograph: ADPD

Cacopardo famous that Malta is among the many most water-deprived nations in Europe, with solely Cyprus ranked as larger on the Water Exploitation Index Plus (WEI+).

He stated the Planning Authority and Water Companies Company had accomplished “very little, if anything” to assist the nation make up for that shortage via rainwater harvesting. As an alternative, the main focus was on drawing water from dwindling groundwater reserves and processing seawater via energy-intensive reverse osmosis.

ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci stated local weather change meant Malta had no time to waste in tackling the problem, saying the federal government’s Imaginative and prescient 2050 doc did not take the problem significantly.

“There is a need for measures for water conservation, and which are taken into account when we build and repair our roads,” she stated. 

“Water is not an infinite source, and for a country that strives to be a competitive country and a tourist destination of excellence in the year 2025, this is unacceptable,” she stated.