Water 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.

Living in an apartment without an elevator when you are 80 years old can be a problem, but it is even more so if you live in a city where the water that comes out of the taps is not good for drinking or cooking, and you depend on bottled water if you do not want to get sick. This is the case for Antònia, who does not have an osmosis system in her home and relies on her family network to be able to have drinking water. "At my age, I don't have the strength to carry jugs of water up the stairs and I'm afraid of falling," she explains. "I always have to keep after my family to see if they can go buy it for me and bring it up to our home. I feel bad about bothering them because I know they are very busy, but I have no other choice, because with this water I can't even boil potatoes," she adds.

"For decades, nitrates have acted like the dog in the manger, which neither eats the hay nor lets the ox eat it: their presence prevented drinking the water, but the problem was not perceived as urgent enough to mobilize the investments necessary to resolve it." This is asserted by Francesc Grimalt, the manager of the municipal company Serveis de l'Ajuntament de Manacor (SAM), which manages the water supply network. Manacor, with nearly 30,000 inhabitants in its urban center, is considered the most populous city in Spain that still does not have potable water in most of its residential network. Since 2015, work has been underway to modernize the water cycle network to control consumption and reduce leaks, in order to prepare the city for the postponed arrival of potable water to all the taps in the capital of the Llevant region.

The GOB has formally requested that Palma City Councilhalt the processing of the Sustainable Water Management Plan (PGSA), with which Jaime Martínez and his team aim to obtain the necessary technical justification to have more water and be able to move forward with the 9,000 to 10,000 extra apartments from the strategic projects. Projects that are already being processed by different developers, but which both the City Council and the interested parties know cannot obtain a license at this time if the amount of water available in the municipality is not increased. This Sustainable Water Management Plan (PGSA) was initially approved by Cort on March 26th, but, according to the environmental organization, it contains very significant errors that force "its withdrawal". MÉS per Palma had already warned that this Plan did not meet all the requirements and denounced its approval due to the increase in consumption it foresees.

MÉS per Mallorca presented ten proposals this Friday to guarantee the availability and quality of water in Mallorca. The document includes a decalogue of "priority" commitments regarding water resources that cover measures at the regional, island, and municipal levels. The decalogue proposes restricting non-essential uses of drinking water in situations of pre-alert, alert, or drought emergency and establishing moratoriums or limitations on new private swimming pools in areas with water stress or overexploited aquifers. The measures include addressing climate change and drought and actions to guarantee public infrastructure and quality water in all municipalities, among others.

I would love to tell you that I am one of them, one of those assertive people who say what they think and make their voice heard. I am not. I am one of those who, in the face of a conflict or a slight threat, shrinks. Mind you, a few hours later I win all the dialectical arguments in the shower. You should see me: I am quick, with sharp arguments, and I make my point of view known. I can even afford the luxury of using irony, all while elevating my position over my adversary. In the shower. Alone. Very sad, all of it. Therefore, when I confront someone, you can be sure that it must have been something serious. And that is, precisely, what happened to me this summer.To put you in context, we have spent a few weeks on vacation in the north of Mallorca, near the area where my grandparents were from and where I used to spend my summers as a child. My new routine has consisted of waiting to see the sunrise (an advantage of a child who doesn't sleep), going to the beach at 9:00, and returning at 11:00. And, involuntarily, becoming a sort of 'topless' Captain Planet. They say it: not all heroes wear capes; some don't even wear the top part of their swimsuit. And if there is one thing I cannot understand and that I handle worse every year, it is the issue of public showers at the beach. I can understand showering, rinsing off the seaweed —so much, so very much, that we've had this summer and that has gifted us empty beaches in the middle of August—, but not staying in the shower for more than a minute. If it were up to me, the button should give you an electric shock if you touch it more than once; like a Mediterranean version of The Hunger Games. You came to the beach: whether you like it or not, you will take home some grains of sand between your toes. Spoiler: wetting your flip-flops will only make the situation worse, as now you are a sponge with legs. If my huffs and grumbles haven't bothered you, along with a baby in my arms looking at you just as badly as I am, I don't know what will. My tactic is simple: I wait patiently for a shower turn —two, because I feel generous—, I start shifting my weight from one foot to the other, exhaling louder and louder through my nose. And then I go straight into action and explain in English that we have no water in Mallorca and that we should be finishing up... Most people are surprised; some act as if it has nothing to do with them, and others get confrontational. I would love to think that they are equally bothered by: the grains of sand and the crazy woman who goes topless who speaks to them in three languages so they can choose which one they want to be offended in.

The real estate developers of the Balearic Islands are not satisfied with the regulatory reforms of Marga Prohens' Government and, despite the possibility of increasing the number of apartments on the same plot by 45%, they have sent new proposals to Parliament. The Proinba Association aspires to amend the Balearic Islands' Urban Planning Law to facilitate the processing of real estate projects even if the water supply has not been approved. The document arrives after the developers have encountered difficulties in moving forward with the projects that aim to address the housing emergency.The regulatory reform that they have sent to Parliament would allow apartments to be approved first and then resolve whether they have the water necessary for future inhabitants legally guaranteed. This is the type of approach that courts have struck down in other territories, reminding that the order is the other way around: first it is necessary to prove that there is water, and then begin with licenses and permits.

The Minister of the Sea and the Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, has confirmed that preliminary proceedings have been opened and that they have requested information from the Sant Antoni City Council regarding the Egyptian-themed party with an artificial lake held at Sa Pedrera in mid-August.

The city councils of Campos and Ses Salines have alerted the population that the water from their public networks is not suitable for human consumption due to the high levels of sodium it contains. The councils have recommended not using it for drinking or cooking, although it can still be used for personal hygiene and household cleaning.

The sewage treatment plants in the Balearic Islands are increasingly under pressure due to population growth and tourism activity. This is the main warning in the annual report by the Balearic Islands Water Observatory, prepared by the Water Alliance based on data from the 80 treatment plants managed directly by the Balearic Agency for Water and Environmental Quality (Abaqua).

The Government will invest 5.58 million euros from the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS) to reinforce the water cycle infrastructures of eleven municipalities in the Serra de Tramuntana. The actions aim to guarantee supply, increase reserve capacity, reduce leaks, and improve sanitation and drainage networks.

In 1952, when Elizabeth II ascended to the throne of the United Kingdom, Isaac Asimov published a story whose plot was based on the struggle for water between Earth and the colonies of Mars. In other words, more than 70 years ago, Asimov already understood that a water crisis could endanger an entire planet. Or two. And that water is not a resource that can be squandered. In fact, from ‘Dune’ (Frank Herbert) to the screenwriters of ‘Mad Max’ (George Miller and Byron Kennedy), many science fiction authors have seen in the possibilities of water scarcity an apocalyptic plot.Well then, the Islands are already living an apocalyptic plot: there is no water, but we continue growing, building, expanding airports and increasing the number of tourists as if we had water. What could go wrong?At the beginning of this year, the United Nations, in a landmark report, declared that the world has entered an era of global water bankruptcy. In other words, many ecosystems have reached the point of no return, because human demand, with its unsustainable progress, has exhausted aquifer savings and dried up the wells of the future. The entire planet's water system is at risk. And, on this desolate map, we can understand islands like the Balearics —located in a Mediterranean that is warming above average and sold to tourism and unbridled concrete— as the paradigm of shipwreck in dry dock, the small-scale experiment of the consequences of the policy of excess. What happens when a society behaves as if a finite resource were infinite?Thus, amid the widespread absurdity, the Archipelago rises, once again, as the champion of nonsense. Attila preventing the grass from growing. In the Islands, we still don't understand what we're playing with regarding water. And this despite all indicators showing we're reaching a very dangerous limit. Water reserves are not reaching 40% on any island. Menorca's reserves have fallen to historic lows. In Ibiza, the largest part of the underground water masses are overexploited and salinized. And the precipitation regime is disrupted due to climate change.It is true that many municipalities have established restrictions — supply cuts or restrictions on irrigation and swimming pools — but if construction continues and human pressure increases, these measures will be like putting band-aids on Smith and Wesson .45 wounds.We are living a water crisis within a climate crisis that threatens our future. And, in reality, it's not that we don't understand it (I think many of us do), it's that whoever sets the agenda for our rulers is a business sector that, in its infinite arrogance, believes that money buys everything and that their navel is above all things in the universe. One fine day I reproached the person in charge of the company that brings us water to our homes —the water oligarchs— that, with the critical situation of the aquifers, they didn't turn off the tap (never better said) to those who ask for five trucks a day for swimming pools and gardens. He answered me that, in reality, he should offer these wasters a better price than me, because they are their best clients. And this is the philosophy. The laws of the market applied to a resource of all that they have privatized without anyone setting limits. Suicidal capitalism, once again.And, ultimately, the limits, of course, are always for those of us who already save water. Individual consciousness as an alibi for not discussing the decisions of those who truly waste. And if not, just ask the pharaoh of Sant Antoni de Portmany (read Mayor Marcos Serra), who, in full drought alert, authorized a party where an Egyptian setting was recreated with a lake that required 170 tons of water to be poured. Water as decoration; the shape of the water we were missing to see.In Asimov's story, titled Martian Way, Earth is about to stop supplying water to Mars —and I don't know if this will be a spoiler, but the book is from 1952—, so the Martians, to avoid depending on Earth's water, decide to go search for an enormous block of ice in Saturn's rings. What some would call technological solutions. And perhaps they themselves will tell me that, after all, an Archipelago is surrounded by water, and that the solution is desalination. But if anyone still thinks that way, I will recommend a short trip to Talamanca, where Ibiza's desalination plant discharges the brine from the desalination process through an outfall under a cliff. There, right there, there should be a splendid seagrass meadow. But the desalination plant has destroyed it. The ecological cost of desalination is too high. And until we can go get ice from Saturn's rings, we either stop building or die of thirst.

Between 2023 and August 2026, the Directorate General of Water Resources has authorized 2,865 wells with associated water consumption, according to data provided by the Government. These are not simple "applications submitted or cases being processed, but rather extractions that have obtained administrative authorization" to extract water, according to Executive sources. The count does not include wells intended for geothermal energy. In this way, the aquifers of the Balearic Islands continue to incorporate new extraction points at a time when pressure on underground reserves is one of the main concerns in water management on the Islands.

Menorca consumes 35% more water than provided for by the Hydrological Plan of the Balearic Islands. It is, by far, the island that presents the greatest imbalance between the current reality and the maximum supply flow for urban and residential uses that, in theory, it should support. The report from the Water Alliance, which compares extractions with the quotas established by the Hydrological Plan, makes this very clear. The situation has gotten out of control, much more so than in Mallorca (which only exceeds the forecast by 8.5%) and Ibiza (15.4%).

The Esporles Town Hall has put out to tender for 97,948 euros the works to drill a new well in Les Rotgetes with the aim of increasing available resources and reinforcing the supply of drinking water to this urbanization and the Jardín de Flores area.

The Balearic Islands consume 22 cubic hectometers of water more than assigned by the current hydrological plan for urban and residential consumption in rural land. This means that the Archipelago exceeds the water extraction limit from aquifers by 8.5% in Mallorca, 15.4% in Ibiza, 35.5% in Menorca, and 70.8% in Formentera, according to the Water Alliance.

Deià began this Friday to apply water cuts three days a week at the La Residència hotel and in various areas of the municipality due to a lack of resources to guarantee supply. The restriction affects Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the Llucalcari sector, l’Empeltada, the Caves of can Puigserver, la Cala and the area of the road towards Sóller.

The Government has approved a new model agreement for supplying drinking water by tanker trucks to the municipalities of Mallorca that are not connected to the main supply network. Although the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle presents the measure as a way to guarantee supply, the document does not establish minimum consumption commitments nor does it assure the town councils a specific volume of water.