Treated sewage effluent - an alternative water supply for irrigation in the Maltese Island

Abstract

Water is a scarce substance in the Maltese islands because of geographic and climatic conditions. Malta has no surface waters that can be economically exploited; the islands depend on frail groundwater resources that are subject to fierce competition and constant pressure resulting from intense human activity over a relatively small territory. As a result, the status of groundwater in Malta is today under constant threat of anthropogenic activity that is reflected through quality and quantity depletion of the resource. Malta is among the first 10 top-ranking countries in global water scarcity with the highest competition index (Table 1) of 24,800 inh/hm3.yr in 1995 (Margat and Vallee, 2000).