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Introduction
As a
first step, the Water Policy Framework Regulations require that an
‘initial characterisation’ of the groundwater bodies within the
Maltese Water Catchment District be carried out. The main aim of
this initial process is the identification of those bodies of
groundwater which are at risk of failing to achieve the
Environmental Objectives of the Regulations by 2015.
The
Regulations outline that this initial investigation should be
based on existing hydrological, geological, pedological, land-use,
discharge, abstraction and other data and should identify and
outline:
the pressures to which the groundwater bodies
are likely to be subject including:
the general characteristics of the overlying
geological formations and strata in the catchment area from which
the groundwater body receives its recharge;
those groundwater bodies for which there are
directly dependent surface water ecosystems or terrestrial
ecosystems.
The
basic characteristics of each groundwater body in the Maltese
Water Catchment District were collated and are presented in the
information sheets below. Further detailed information can be
obtained from the document entitled ‘Initial Characterisation of
Groundwater Bodies within the Maltese Water Catchment District
under the Water Policy Framework Regulations, 2004’.
The
‘bodies of groundwater’ thus identified are as follows:
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