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Review of the impact of human
activity on groundwaters
Introduction
The Water Framework Directive under Article 5 requires Member
States to undertake a review of the impact of human activity on
the status of groundwaters. Annex II to the Directive spells out
the technical details related to the methodology required for this
impact analysis.
As a first step the Directive requires that Member States
collect and maintain a register of anthropogenic pressures for
each groundwater body which has been identified following the
investigations in the ‘Initial Characterization’ phase as being at
risk of failing to meet the objectives set in Article 4. Annex II
to the Directive outlines these data requirements as:
the
location of points in the groundwater body used for the
abstraction of water with the exception of:
-
points for the abstraction of water providing less than an average
of 10m3 per day, or
-
points for the abstraction of water intended for human consumption
providing less than an average of 10m3 per day and
serving less than 50 persons.
the
annual average rates of abstraction from such points;
the
chemical composition of water abstracted from the groundwater
body;
the
location of points in the groundwater body into which water is
directly discharged;
the
rates of discharge at such points;
the
chemical composition of discharges to the groundwater body, and
land
use in the catchment or catchments from which the groundwater body
receives its recharge, including pollutant inputs and
anthropogenic alterations to the recharge characteristics such as
rainwater and run-off diversion through land sealing, artificial
recharge, damming or drainage.
The main pressures identified in Annex II of the WFD can thus
be summarised as:
-
Point sources of
pollution;
-
Diffuse sources
of Pollution
-
Changes in water
levels and flow caused by abstraction or recharge.
The following sheets summarize the major pressures lying
within the surface catchment area of each groundwater body within
the Maltese Water Catchment District.
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