Unethical marketing tactics

Engineer Marco Cremona (The Sunday Times, January 17) has again advocated the use of treated sewage effluent for irrigation.

Having previously claimed that Malta's groundwater will vanish within 15 years he now announces that agriculture will also disappear in 15 to 20 years, unless we stop extracting groundwater and start using recycled sewage, after further treatment.

Mr Cremona expresses strong views in favour of such "additional investment", claiming to speak purely as a hydrologist but stopping short of disclosing whether he stands to make any personal financial gain from it.

As a matter of fact, although trained as a mechanical engineer, Mr Cremona is really a businessman operating in the field of recycled water treatment. While speaking so highly of recycled sewage, he fails to reveal that he is hoping to produce and sell the equipment needed to render it suitable for agriculture.

In a recent interview Mr Cremona talked candidly about his commercial venture: the HOTER project. He complained that "my HOTER project is competing against an unrealistic price of town water and illegal groundwater that is extracted from boreholes for free".

Nobody is in favour of illegal extraction, obviously, but this quotation explains the vehemence with which Mr Cremona attacks any possibility that farmers may be allowed to use natural water sources.

He is not only against illegalities but also seeks to persuade us that no groundwater at all should be used for agricultural and industrial purposes. Treated sewage should be used instead, thus creating - quite by coincidence - a ready market for Mr Cremona's products.

Since 'cheap' town water is also an obstacle, Mr Cremona believes that "... the subsidy on water tariffs must be stopped to make the project commercially feasible in Malta".

The more expensive town water would presumably result in his HOTER project becoming "commercially feasible", he said.

Mr Cremona is to be commended for his industrial entrepreneurship and one wishes him every success in his enterprise. I mean it when I say that we need more businessmen like him in Malta, but the fact remains that he is using unethical marketing tactics by pushing his commercial interest under the guise of scientific and ecological arguments so that we do not know where one ends and the others begin.

The blurring of lines between genuine environmental concerns and financial gain is to be regretted as, among other things, it gives rise to suspicion that all environmentalists could be working for personal profit. Mr Cremona, in fact, sees his commitment as making "a good return on investment and environmental resources such as water are protected".

Incidentally, should Mr Cremona deign to reply to this letter he might also wish to explain why he called the director of the university institute where I work and angrily protested because I was being allowed to express my views publicly.

I'm not sure what he hoped to achieve - perhaps he will tell us.