In Menorca there is no water for everyone

CitadelWater reserves in Menorca reached their lowest level ever recorded in August, at 33%, and aquifers such as the Roca are in an even worse state, at only 24% of their capacity. The restrictions imposed by town councils are still in force in six of the island's eight municipalities and, although towns like Es Mercadal have reduced consumption by 23% among large consumers, the solutions, including a second desalination plant, will take time to become effective.

Faced with this situation, the GOB has asked all political parties and organized citizens on the island to avoid new tourist developments on the coast and to also reconsider those that are planned. It is a matter –it says– of "moving from words to action" and rethinking urban developments that, despite being approved, have lost environmental viability given the serious water shortage that the island is suffering.

Projects under processing

The GOB is focusing its sights, in particular, on the 11,663 places that can be created in the growth areas planned around the urbanizations and speaks explicitly about "rethinking" the projects currently being processed in Cap d’en Font and Binissafúller (Sant Lluís), Platges de Fornells (es Mercadal), Repòs del Rei (es Castell), Torre-solí (Alaior), and Canutells (Maó).

"The fact that in 2026 there are still town councils processing partial plans to build more than 100 new chalets on the coast, or that the Council prevents the elimination of tourist places that are becoming inoperative due to the market itself, shows that there is still a lot of work to be done," it warns. Especially considering that the Omnibus Law allows for the acceleration of projects considered strategic without having to prove that there will be enough water to supply the new growth.

The greatest potential for growth remains on the north coast of es Mercadal, which can increase its current tourist accommodation capacity by up to 55%, nearly 7,000 beds. The area most affected is the Platges de Fornells urbanization, which the 2003 Island Territorial Plan (PTI) had already reduced by half. However, the recent reactivation of the project to build 116 new chalets and 297 new hotel places has put the GOB on alert, which has warned that the s’Albaida aquifer, on which the Roca wells that supply the urbanization depend, is at historical lows due to the overexploitation it has suffered and does not have enough water to support this growth. Even more so when the average consumption on the Menorcan coast, which nears 500 liters per person per day, practically doubles the residential consumption and that calculated in the partial plan itself.

The environmental organization has also filed allegations against the development of the centers of Cap d’en Font and Binissafúller, on the coast of Sant Lluís. The partial plan being processed by the Sant Lluís Town Council plans to build 115 new chalets in an area where, as the Balearic Commission for the Environment has certified, there is no water. And the solution proposed by the developer to inject brine into the wells does not satisfy the GOB either, which fears that the aquifer could be contaminated and facilitate marine intrusion into the subsoil.

The underground mass from which water is extracted to supply the eastern part of Menorca is also overexploited and does not have enough resources to guarantee the development of the Repós del Rei area, halfway between Maó and Es Castell. The partial plan that regulates the urbanization of the area is the result of the agreement signed between the City Council and the developer in 2004, 22 years ago, but it is now being processed again. It provides for 282 homes and two hotels with 250 beds each, but the environmental study does not see it as viable until seawater can be desalinated.

1,191 residential places

The other area mentioned by GOB, the one in Torre-solí (Alaior), also foresees significant growth near one of the largest urbanizations in Menorca, that of Son Bou, as there is an intention to develop 700,000 square meters of land. According to forecasts, it could accommodate up to 1,191 residential places and another 450 hotel places.

But there are other developments, even more advanced, that are already impossible to stop. These are projects now so extemporaneous as the construction of 38 detached houses, each with its own swimming pool, and a communal swimming pool in the Son Parc urbanization. The City Council of Es Mercadal has just granted a license to the developer Pryconsa SL to execute the work with a budget of 8.5 million euros. Also in Son Parc, it has authorized another 25 villas with swimming pools in a condominium promoted by Neinor Península SL, the developer that has bought the already approved development in the area and which has been pending execution for years.

Other developments contiguous to the urbanizations of Santandria, Cala Galdana, Punta Grossa, and Son Ganxo continue equally waiting to be processed and executed, but the island's natural resources cannot take any more. The study announced by the Council to determine Menorca's real capacity to absorb new growth and guarantee them water will set the true limit of what the island can assume.