The water crisis in Mallorca is getting serious. Palma is closely monitoring the dropping water levels in Mallorca’s two main reservoirs, the rural centre of the island has already been slapped with restrictions and hosepipe bans and now Soller Town Council can only guarantee the water supply for two more weeks if there is not enough rain in the meantime to replenish the municipal wells of Ses Fontanelles.
Following last Friday’s council proclamation, which prohibits non-essential water use and urges the population to take extreme water-saving measures, yesterday the council held another meeting with the Director General of Water Resources, Joan Calafat, to analyse the situation. According to the mayor, Miquel Nadal, ‘the situation is very worrying and if it does not rain in the next 10 days, more severe restrictions than those currently in force will have to be applied’. Nadal assures that current daily consumption ‘is higher than what can be extracted from Ses Fontanelles and what Sa Costera provides’. Furthermore, the sources of s’Olla and s’Ullet, which are now barely sufficient for irrigators, cannot be counted on either.
Water consumption in Soller has risen sharply to 4,000 cubic metres per day, although it should be noted that due to the high efficiency of the public network, the figure has barely increased in recent years. If the council has to impose cuts, it will be the first time this has happened since September 2000.
The reservoirs in the Serra de Tramuntana mountains are beginning to show the expected and worrying figures that could be predicted given the lack of significant rainfall in Mallorca. According to measurements taken on Monday 25 August by Emaya, the combined capacity of the Gorg Blau and Cúber reservoirs stands at 30.98%, which is less than a third of their total capacity and close to the dangerous 30% mark in the case of the larger of the two reservoirs located in the municipality of Escorca. This data highlights the seriousness of the situation, twelve months ago, the figure was 34%, according to the Meteociència Balear channel.
On Monday, the Gorg Blau reservoir was at 30.59% of its total capacity, compared to 31.59% for the Cúber reservoir. These figures are more than worrying when compared to those of just a month ago, when, on 21 July, the combined capacity of the two reservoirs was 38.86%; that is, almost eight points less in just four weeks, when 33.51% and 47.34% were recorded in Gorg Blau and Cúber, respectively.
The decline began to be noticeable at that time, falling in one week (28 July) to a total of 37.13% between the two reservoirs, with Gorg Blau falling to 31.6% and Cúber to 45.88%. It is in the latter scenario that the decline in reserves is most noticeable, having fallen by nearly 16% in about five weeks. This is an alarming figure, especially as no significant rainfall is forecast for Mallorca in the short term, except for isolated episodes such as those that occurred a few days ago in specific areas and locations.
It should be noted that all demand units in Mallorca are on pre-alert, with the exception of Tramuntana Sud. The situation is similar on the other islands, as in Menorca and Ibiza the entire territory and its demand units are on pre-alert, while in Formentera the situation is normal, according to data from the regional government last July.