Malta’s Water Ranked Safest In The World Raises Eyebrows – Including Erin Brockovich’s
According to a study conducted as a part of Yale University’s Environmental Performance Index, Malta is one of just ten countries in the world with a perfect 100 EPI score – meaning that local tap water is amongst the world’s safest for drinking.
Malta’s stable access to water may be facing significant threats, but according to this study, what we do have shouldn’t kill us.
Alongside countries such as the UK, Switzerland, Austria, Norway and Ireland – most of which receive average annual precipitation in significantly higher quantities than does Malta – our tap water is apparently perfectly safe for consumption.
This study was not accounting for taste – which makes a lot of sense to those of us who have recently attempted to ingest unfiltered Maltese tap water – but focused on life-years lost due to exposure to unsafe drinking water.
The majority of Malta’s tap water is produced through desalination – with studies estimating that 27% of out total water supplies coming from groundwater – to improve the taste of desalinated water.
Nitrates used for farming seep into and pollute our groundwater, which has resulted in Malta having Europe’s second highest level of water nitrate pollution.
On top of that, a 2020 study found that Malta has the second highest highest percentage of bladder cancer cases attributable to exposure to trihalomethanes in tap water.
If Yale’s study is accurate, the prevalence of these dangers may be a thing of the past, and Malta’s tap water should be perfectly safe.
A chart demonstrating the results of Yale’s EPI study was shared on social media by environmental activist Erin Brockovich – who was famously heavily involved in a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company, even having a film made about her experience.
The case eventually proved that the corporation had knowingly contaminated Hinkley, California’s groundwater with heavy pollutants, threatening the health of thousands.
Brockovich’s post has been shared amongst Maltese groups, prompting local residents to react with a mixture of shock, surprise, sarcasm – and very little genuine praise for Malta’s water authorities.
Some of those reacting to this study have pointed out that because very few people actually drink water right out of the tap – favouring filtered water and bottled imports instead.
They argue that this bias means that a study measuring life-years lost per 100,000 people will fail to measure the reality of Malta’s water quality.
Results of a study testing water quality – which never tested the quality of water directly – could be dubious.
A slightly less nuanced commenter referred to Malta’s tap water simply as: “A shit in the tap”.
What do you think about this study?
Editor’s note: Recommended listening after reading the article – New World Water – Mos Def
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