Climate change impacts on the water resources : an analysis of the agricultural sector in Gozo

Abstract

In this dissertation, entitled 'Climate change impacts on water resources: An analysis of the agricultural sector in Gazo ' the author deals with the current situation of water resources available to the agricultural sector as adversely influenced by climate change. This study aims to tackle this particular threat because it's a current problem affecting a vital sector in the Maltese Islands. The sampling population, being the Gozitan farmers, helped to provide an insight on this particular problem and any possible remedies. This dissertation endeavours to prove the agricultural sector's over-dependence on groundwater resource and the related consequences. The latter are further augmented by the phenomenon of climate change thereby it's in the aim of this dissertation to assess the level of impact towards the agricultural sector and what possible remedies could serve to diminish the impacts to the minimum. Such alternatives include the use of Treated Sewage Effluent, a water resource which, although a large number of farmers still look at it in a sinister way, is significant enough to influence national water budgets and the drafting of water master plans.