Briny future for vulnerable Malta (BBC) {rising sea-->less fresh water}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC World Service

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But there is another aspect to sea level rise that is already having a significant effect on Malta. It is the impact on the supply of drinking water.

In the tourist season Malta's population trebles. All these extra people put great pressure on the island's water supply, which depends on a vast reservoir that lies under the island.

Because the fresh water is less dense than salt water, this reserve effectively floats on the sea.

Down the centuries, the Maltese have developed a clever system of underground tunnels, called galleries, to extract the water for human consumption.

Salt rise

About 97m (320ft) beneath the surface of the island lie the Ta' Kandja galleries. Reached by a lift, the tunnels stretch out for several kilometres like the spokes of a wheel, all half filled with water that is pumped up to the surface and then to homes and farms around the island.


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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6525069.stm?ls

Fascinating, Captain ... the underground galleries in Malta are very similar to those found in central Asia, Iran, etc. Like much of Mediterranean Europe, Malta was occupied by Arabs during the early Middle Ages, and the Maltese language is a variety of Arabic, today written in Roman script.

[CTyankee]

1. I SO want to go to Malta! It is one of my dream destinations!

There are lots of great things to explore there. I also want to see one of Caravaggio's masterpieces that he painted there when he was (very briefly) a Knight of Malta. The magnigicent work is "The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist" and the artist wrote his name in the pool of John's blood.