Safeguarding a balance

Water is a fundamental natural resource that every person needs in order to address their most basic of needs and functions. It also plays a central role in our environment for a healthy ecosystem.

Groundwater, freshwaters and coastal waters are all intertwined. Water is a shared resource that is used by many and provides a range of ecosystem services. Indeed, apart from using water to address our basic needs, such as drinking and hygienic purposes, water is also essential for our agriculture and food, maritime transport, environmental stability, and leisure – especially in Malta, being an island state.

It goes without saying, that many issues can impact water resources and affect related activities and vice versa. Similarly, the ecosystem that water supports can be disrupted and impacted, leading to a loss in the species and the services that biodiversity provide, such as the control of flooding, natural decontamination processes through root absorption and carbon sinks, amongst others.

It is therefore essential that this balance is safeguarded.

This is done through various policies and legislation, which aim at establishing a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, which include our watercourses along valley systems, transitional waters, coastal waters, and groundwater.

Being an island, Malta’s interest in effective water management was always high on the Government’s Agenda. The first two Water Catchment Management Plans have addressed pressing issues, introducing new regulatory aspects addressing the environmental aspects of water management and innovative approaches that have been developed to ensure increased protection of our waters and their maintenance. Various EU and government funds were obtained to address key issues, which lead to the delineation of water bodies, new protected areas, and the restoration and management of selected areas.

However, as implementation proceeds and more scientific knowledge is gained, additional and newly emerging pressures are being identified. The pressure imposed by climate change on our natural water environment and the related, often extreme environmental scenarios faced by Malta, including a prolonged drought period and infrequent storms, often with high intensity, need to be addressed holistically.

In view of this, the need for a more integrated approach towards water management, both on land and at sea is called for. The new strategy plans to look at new approaches towards addressing such matters – including green infrastructure and a softer and greener approach towards the management of our protected water bodies and valley systems – with the intent of protecting the environment and our wellbeing. This will be done by addressing flooding episodes at source, reducing these and addressing erosion of our soils and related desertification, as well as erosion in critical wetlands – where EU cofinancing has also been obtained.

The impacts from emerging contaminants are also being addressed. Whilst monitoring plays a key role in understanding the impact of contaminants, a number of new emerging contaminants need to be addressed, with appropriate action toolkits ranging from awareness-raising to regulatory measures. These aim to increase awareness, strengthen joint regulation, and reduce the entry of such contaminants into the water systems. This is very important once recent scientific assessments abroad indicate how some of these emerging contaminants, which also include microplastics, may also enter the food chain, with both environmental and health concerns. Such contaminants may be invisible to the naked eye, but also be a direct nuisance to ourselves and tourists that visit us, affecting our waters, its habitats and wildlife, as is also the case with plastics.

Indeed, litter management remains one of the key challenges that as a country we need to continue fight together. The Ministry for the Environment has announced various initiatives and measures to curb marine litter particularly to reduce single-use plastic items that often end up in our seas, addressing this both from the strategic and outreach aspects as well as through citizen engagement. We are continuing our awareness-raising on this subject through ‘Saving our Blue’ which I am pleased to note, is garnishing interest from all strata of our society to pledge ‘no to plastics’.

This and other challenges require a holistic plan to be able to tackle effectively. Improved synergies will be sought to ensure that sectoral policies are increasingly aligned to national objectives in the water sector, thereby encouraging wherever possible investments in the management of water demand and the broadening of the water supply base even at a local level. This with a view of ensuring a high level of national water use efficiency and sustainability which contributes to the security of water supply and the protection of the natural water environment.

The Water Catchment Management Plan aims at addressing such environmental issues, linked to water, and the related wellbeing linked to water resources. Malta has so far developed two such Water Catchment Management for our fresh waters and related coastal waters – the first Water Catchment Management Plan was published in 2011, and the second plan was published in 2016, covering up to 2021.

The Government is committed to continue safeguarding such resources and intends to promote further efforts to build on the results achieved with the implementation of the 2nd Water Catchment Management Plan.

These plans characterise Malta’s waters, assess their status on the basis of available scientific data and propose a number of measures to be implemented to address pressures and gaps in knowledge, in order to better manage these important resources.

The public consultation process that was kicked off by Minister Michael Farrugia and myself provides the opportunity for all stakeholders and the public to contribute to the development of the third Water Catchment Management Plan.

Sharing of knowledge and experience can only contribute positively to developing a plan that works in practice and ensuring these common resources and natural heritage are safeguarded.

The success of such a plan requires close cooperation and action at all levels of society. Therefore, cooperation from the very start, through such a public consultation, is key. Everyone is invited and encouraged to take up this opportunity and have your say about the key issues and problems linked to the management of water resources, and to propose ideas and solutions that can be integrated within this national plan for cleaner and less polluted Maltese waters.