Banyalbufar council is going to introduce water restrictions from today ( Tuesday) “until the situation improves”, from July 15 there will be no water supply from 23.00 to 16.00 hours throughout the municipal network. Thus the supply will only be provided for seven hours a day, from 16:00 to 23:00. The council, which had already established limits on consumption per person, has opted for this measure because the water tankers can no longer guarantee a minimum supply to supply the population in summer, “where consumption is increasingly high”.
This municipality in the Serra de Tramuntana, with less than 600 inhabitants, has more tourist places than registered residents - and that is not counting possible illegal places.
It is also home to Richard Branson’s luxury Son Bunyola hotel and villas. The continuous municipal spending on hiring water trucks is generating serious “budgetary instability”, explained the town council.
“We are running out of money, we can’t keep up the pace of trucks all year round,” stressed the first deputy mayor of Banyalbufar, Joan Vives. Moreover, the obstacle is not only financial, the supply companies themselves have also told the Town Hall that they will have to limit the amount of water they can provide. For this reason, the announcement of the cuts two weeks in advance is intended to allow residents, hotels and restaurants to “prepare”, giving them time to carry out installations and fill tanks where necessary.
In the meantime, the government team is giving top priority to the procedures for drilling a new well on a private plot. Technicians have already located the groundwater body and the council wants to speed up the process as much as possible to start the work as soon as possible. The town’s main natural springs are the Font de Sa Vila and the Ses Mosqueres well. In June, the former was already in a “critical” state. The well, meanwhile, was closed for 12 years due to deficiencies, and its situation has been regularised this year.
Other municipalities in Mallorca have also set limits on water consumption this year, such as Artà and Estellencs, the latter having already banned in May the use of drinking water to refill swimming pools, water allotments and gardens - especially lawns and trees - clean terraces, cars and façades, and any use of water for other purposes.