The Manacor City Council has approved changes to the water rates for water supplied by SAM, the municipal company responsible for its management. The new, more socially oriented system will offer discounts on bills for, for example, large families, single-parent families, families with a dependent person, or families with a victim of gender-based violence. Thus, the City Council is establishing a system of consumption blocks from now on, in order to implement progressive tariffs and "so that those who consume more pay more," explained the Councilor for the Environment and President of the Board of Directors of SAM, Sebastià Llodrà, who recalled that water prices have not been touched since the population changed.

The water war continues in Palma. For the moment, Jaime Martínez's City Council has managed to avoid the preliminary reports from the Directorate General of Water Resources that prevent it from issuing building permits. The official argument is that there is a monumental backlog, which municipal sources have estimated at 500 files. Thus, the City Council emphasizes that projects to address the housing shortage have not been approved due to what it describes as a bottleneck in the Water Resources department. However, according to data consulted by ARABalears, the majority – up to 80% – of the projects that must be approved by the Directorate General are for detached houses. According to official figures, Palma does not have 500 pending applications, but rather 118. As already mentioned, the majority of these are for single-family homes, according to data from the Balearic Government. Thus, it could be concluded that the Palma City Council's Urban Planning Department is requesting permission from the regional government, regarding water resources, to build detached houses. In all cases, the procedure is carried out because the proposed construction site is a flood zone, and regulations require a ruling from the water authority.

The Government has put out to tender a contract worth 1.3 million euros to outsource the drafting and processing of reports for the Directorate General of Water Resources With the aim of streamlining procedures, especially those related to housing construction projects, the decision comes at a time of intense pressure from the development sector, which has been complaining for months about delays in water impact reports. These delays are hindering the granting of licenses and the start of construction in a context of soaring demand for housing. The President of the Balearic Government, Marga Prohens, defended the measure in Parliament a week ago, asserting that it reflects the Executive's commitment to addressing administrative bottlenecks. "Our government program pledged to tackle these bottlenecks," she reminded the assembly, also highlighting decisions made at the beginning of the legislative term with the same objective. In this regard, Prohens cited the elimination of the Balearic Environmental Commission, which placed environmental impact assessments in the hands of technical experts rather than a politically appointed body. According to the president, this reform has allowed for an 82% increase in the pace of reports in the first year and a 36% increase in the second. "If it's yes, it's yes; if it's no, it's no, but now in a more agile, more objective, and more rigorous way," she stated. Now, the focus is on Water Resources, a department that, according to the Government, had accumulated delays of up to three and a half years when the legislature began. The Executive maintains that activity has doubled in two and a half years, partly due to the increase in files resulting from measures approved to promote affordable housing, such as the conversion of commercial premises, limited-price developments, and new public housing projects. Complaints from developers

The reality is that developers have lodged complaints with the Government because, on the one hand, regulations and solutions are announced, but on the other, construction projects are not moving forward. The developers' complaints have reached the Consolat de Mar (the seat of the Balearic Government), where the decision has been made to outsource the reports. Government sources anticipate criticism regarding a lack of oversight and assure that "all authorizations will be signed and reviewed by the Administration, as expected." The decision, therefore, is not without debate. Outsourcing reports in such a sensitive area as public water resources—key in a territory with limited resources and subject to intense urban development pressure—is seen by some sectors as a double-edged sword. While it may help shorten deadlines and unblock projects, it also raises questions about public oversight, the uniformity of criteria, and the Administration's capacity to supervise the work commissioned to external companies. Declarations of responsibility

The Government asserts that it has increased resources, modified the internal structure—creating a specific service for managing public water resources and another for planning, works, and maintenance—established different processing queues according to the type of file, and reinforced the teams with support from Tragsa. It has also promoted electronic administration and processing through self-declarations in cases where regulations allow. According to Prohens, these measures have reduced the backlog of files by more than 50%. However, the Government believes they are insufficient to handle the current volume and anticipates that outsourcing will further boost processing. The outsourcing announced by the Government is thus part of a broader administrative reform strategy aimed at reducing processing times and facilitating economic activity, especially in the housing sector. The fundamental question is to what extent this streamlining can be reconciled with maintaining guarantees in the management of a strategic resource like water, which is currently in a critical situation in the Islands.

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The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, has won the first of his battles against the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle, meaning the Palma City Council (Cort) will be able to grant building permits for urban development projects without the involvement of the Water Resources Department when dealing with flood-prone areas. This was announced on Tuesday by Minister Juan Manuel Lafuente, who confirmed an exceptional procedure "agreed upon with the Palma City Council so that it can directly inform the Water Resources Department's reports," he explained in response to a question from Vox deputy Patricia de las Heras. Lafuente admitted that this decision was made to expedite building permits. ARA Baleares had previously reported that the Palma City Council had long been demanding not to have to go through the Directorate General of Water Resources to authorize the large apartment developments that have been made possible by regulations promoting new housing. For now, the Balearic Government, and subsequently confirmed by the Palma City Council, have agreed that the City Council can proceed without going through the department specifically responsible for flood zones. Until now, regulations stipulated that these actions had to ensure water sufficiency, and that it was also necessary to determine the degree of impact on the flood zone map. However, Lafuente has hinted that, thanks to administrative simplification laws, Palma has now been authorized. The official objective is to reduce timelines and streamline bureaucratic procedures that, according to the Government, are blocking investment and housing projects. But there are technicians at the Palma City Council who do not share the argument of obstruction, and some have confessed to ARA Baleares that there is "pressure to build apartments at any cost." "They want images of developments underway to meet housing needs, and water sufficiency bothered them," said a specialist who requested anonymity. In this regard, the pressure exerted by Mayor Jaime Martínez on the Government was well known: the mayor asserted that the strategy of building more apartments clashed with the reluctance of the Water Resources Department. As this newspaper previously reported, this pressure from the Palma City Council (Cort) has been exerted within a context of strong urban development in Palma, and the mayor has defended the need to accelerate the construction of apartments and residential developments in response to the housing emergency. The municipal government team has taken advantage of regulations such as the Land Acquisition Decree Law and other measures approved with the support of the PP and Vox parties in the Balearic Parliament to allow for greater residential density and faster development of buildable land. This legal framework anticipates accelerating the construction of "thousands of apartments," and the City Council maintains that, thanks to these measures, results in the form of new housing could be seen during this legislative term. There are figures of up to 20,000 new homes in various official announcements, but the reality is that most of these homes were already planned under the existing urban development plan, and the maximum possible under the new scheme would be a smaller but still significant number. In any case, some developments already underway occupy, at least partially, flood-prone areas, and this fact has strained relations between the Palma City Council (Cort) and the Balearic Government (Govern).

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The Sa Pobla Town Council will file an appeal against the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Regional Ministry of Health regarding alleged deficiencies in the control and recording of drinking water analyses, arguing that there are grounds to justify the municipality's actions. The mayor of Sa Pobla, Biel Ferragut, along with several council members, met this week with officials from the Regional Ministry to personally address the issue, after reviewing the contents of the file and the documentation received. According to the Town Council, in response to specific spikes in nitrate levels exceeding the limit of 50 milligrams per liter, the Municipal Water Service took immediate action to correct the results and improve the quality of the supply, with the aim of ensuring compliance with health standards. The data from the analyses carried out, available in the National Drinking Water Information System (SINAC), show that the average nitrate level over the last five years has been 45.74 mg/L in the main reservoir and 49.55 mg/L in the second reservoir. In the case of the main reservoir, of the 39 samples collected between 2021 and 2025, only five exceeded the established limits for nitrates. According to the City Council, this demonstrates that these were isolated exceedances and that the overall trend remains close to the regulatory threshold and below the maximum permitted level. The local government has reiterated its commitment to public health, transparency, and continuous improvement of the service, and has maintained that water management has been carried out diligently and with corrective measures in place.

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Mallorcan businessman Miquel Gual, majority shareholder of Font Mallorca, has acquired the Font Teix bottling plant and assumed control with the aim of strengthening the island's water-related industrial activity. With this acquisition, Gual—who has over four decades of experience in the sector—is committed to maintaining and consolidating the bottling plant, in a strategy focused on preserving a resource he considers strategic for Mallorca. According to a company statement, the move reflects a desire to reinforce the island's productive and food sovereignty and to generate added value beyond the coastal areas. Gual is also president of the Sóller and Camp Mallorquí Agricultural Cooperative and vice president of the Oli de Mallorca Protected Designation of Origin. He also serves on the permanent board of the Serra de Tramuntana Consortium.

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Marga Prohens announced on Monday the Balearic Islands Marine Conservation Plan, committing to increase tenfold the area of ​​high protection in waters under regional jurisdiction, reaching 500 square kilometers by 2027, specifically within Cabrera National Park, and up to 600 square kilometers by 2030. The president noted that before the reformulation promoted by the central government, the area was known as the Toro and Les Malgrats Island Marine Reserves. The government reduced the total area of ​​the reserve but increased the previously planned high protection zone. "We lost in quantity, but gained in quality," acknowledged sources involved in drafting the Plan. They also consider Prohens' intention "good," although they admit that "the government's general policy has been to reduce marine protection."

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The Balearic Sea has become a dump And the consequences are becoming increasingly evident. In 2025, swimming was prohibited up to 20 times on beaches in various municipalities of Mallorca, such as Manacor, Pollença, and Santanyí, among others, due to the presence of fecal bacteria that pose a public health risk. There were even exceptional bans of up to a week (from July 7 to 14) in Magaluf.

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Water reserves in the Balearic Islands rose to 49% in December, an improvement that placed the Manacor-Felanitx water supply unit back within normal limits. The Balearic Government's Ministry of the Sea and Water Cycle reported that December ended with a further increase in water reserves in the Balearic Islands, reaching 49%, one percentage point higher than in November. Despite this improvement, the current level remains three percentage points below that recorded in the same month of 2014, when reserves reached 52%. By island, Mallorca increased from 48% to 49%; Menorca, from 44% to 46%; and Ibiza, from 47% to 48%, figures that consolidate a positive trend at the end of the year.

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The Balearic Government has initiated the drafting of new projects to install desalinated water dispensers for supplying tanker trucks at various locations in Mallorca and Menorca. The aim of this initiative is to advance the replacement of groundwater resources with non-conventional resources and reduce pressure on aquifers once major infrastructure projects reach all areas in need, as explained by the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle. This action is part of the current hydrological plan and responds to the need to establish short-term mechanisms that make water from the main network more accessible, in this case via trucks, by bringing loading facilities closer to the areas with the most recent needs. The planned projects involve the installation of water dispensers in Bunyola, Petra, and Alcúdia, in Mallorca, and in Ciutadella, in Menorca, all on plots of land linked to infrastructure managed by the Balearic Water and Environmental Quality Agency (Abaqua), such as reservoirs or treatment plants. These filling points will allow for the controlled and safe supply of desalinated water to tanker trucks, facilitating its use in areas that lack a direct connection to the main water network or that require occasional supply reinforcements. The drafting of the projects has been entrusted to the public company Tragsatec, which will expedite the work and provide the necessary technical documentation for future implementation in a shorter timeframe. The projects will include both civil works and hydraulic, electrical, automation, and remote control installations, guaranteeing the traceability of the supplied water and the proper management of the service. In this context, Abaqua points out that the desalinated water dispensers currently operating in Ibiza have allowed for the replacement, since their commissioning in September 2014, of more than 200,000 m³ of water previously extracted from aquifers with desalinated water, thus contributing to their recovery. The call for proposals, with a budget of 700,000 euros, covers expenses arising from the contracting of the service, provided they are duly justified.

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In 2024, water consumption in Mallorca increased by 5.5% compared to the previous year, in a context where the island's aquifers are in a "worrying" state, according to data from the second report of the Environmental Sustainability Observatory prepared by the Mallorca Preservation Foundation. This increase in consumption occurred during a period in which, according to the Foundation's data, 43.5% of the groundwater bodies were in a "poor condition" due to overexploitation and salinization of these facilities. Despite the poor state of the aquifers, 65% of Mallorca's water supply comes from groundwater sources, while 16% comes from desalination plants. The Foundation's report links the overexploitation of the aquifers to the poor state of the water reserves, which, it shows, were "below 60% of capacity" in 2024. For her part, the Foundation's director, Ana Riera, considered that one of Mallorca's challenges is controlling water consumption, which, in her opinion, requires greater investment in water cycle infrastructure to reduce losses, improve wastewater treatment, and prepare treated water for irrigation. The Balearic Government is also aware of the state of the islands' aquifers and, therefore, has changed its strategy and is using desalination systems "to the fullest extent" during the winter—the time of year when these facilities were previously shut down—with the aim of "reducing water extraction as much as possible."aquifers"so that they can recover with the rains," the Director General of Water Resources, Joan Calafat, reported on Wednesday.

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The Government has changed its strategy and is using desalination systems "to the fullest extent" during the winter – the time of year when these facilities were previously shut down – with the aim of "reducing water extraction as much as possible." aquifers "So that they can recover with the rains," reported the Director General of Water Resources, Joan Calafat, this Wednesday. He assured that the Islands are in a "complicated but controlled" situation, although it is 10 points below last year's levels. The Director General pointed out that the Islands' water reserves are on "a clear path to recovery." In this regard, he exemplified that water reserves in Ibiza have increased by 19 percent compared to two months ago "due to the rains, which have raised reserves from 28% to 47%." In Mallorca, the increase has been 4%, and Menorca is the island where the percentage increase has been smallest – from 43% to 44% – due to the rainfall pattern. The Pla de Mallorca and Artà areas remain on alert. Ibiza has moved from alert to pre-alert due to the increase in rainfall. This has reduced the water supply for municipalities that were previously forced to purchase water.

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Water reserves in the Balearic Islands rose to 48% in November, an increase that has allowed Ibiza to move out of the alert status. In a press release, the Balearic Government's Ministry of the Sea and Water Cycle reported that November ended with an increase in water reserves in the Balearic Islands, reaching 48%, four points higher than the previous month. By island, water reserves rose from 44% to 48% in Mallorca, from 43% to 44% in Menorca, and from 39% to 47% in Ibiza.

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"If we assume 200 liters of water per day per tourist, a reasonable consumption for a three-star hotel, the water footprint can reach 11,000 liters per day," estimates the president of the executive committee of Act4water—an initiative involving professionals specializing in corporate sustainability and water management—at the Water and Tourism conference held this Thursday. This figure in the Balearic Islands is equivalent to filling a small swimming pool every day. She added that "the figures increase" if the hotel "upgrades in category." She also pointed out that the average water footprint of a Spanish resident is 6,700 liters of water per day. These figures, however, are only fully understood if one has a clear understanding of what a water footprint is: the total amount of water a tourist consumes both directly—through showers, swimming pools, or baths—and indirectly, through the services they use. This is the water needed to wash hotel towels and sheets, cook, clean rooms, maintain gardens, and fill and treat swimming pools. To put it in context: 11,000 liters is roughly equivalent to 55 five-minute showers, or the domestic water use of an entire family for several days, or 150 loads of washing machine in a single day.

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The process of expropriations, temporary occupations, and the creation of the necessary easements for the construction of the new main water pipeline connecting Maria de la Salut and Sineu has already begun. This announcement was made last Saturday by the Director General of Water Resources, Joan Calafat, during the Water Debate in the Pla region, organized by Pla de Mallorca XXI and the Climate Academy, with the collaboration of the Pla Commonwealth, held in Lloret. This project, considered strategic for guaranteeing the water supply to the center of the island, aims to carry water from Maria de la Salut to the plot of land purchased by the Commonwealth in the Dama area, on the road between Sineu and Petra. This process comes at a particularly critical time for the Pla de Mallorca, which, according to Calafat, is "in a state of emergency" after water availability fell to 44% in October 2025. Calafat warned that "we cannot be complacent" and argued that the next Plan demands measures to reduce pollution and enhance water regeneration. The new pipeline, about which the affected residents, almost all of them from the municipality of Sineu, have already been notified, is part of the Program of Measures of the Hydrological Plan for the Balearic Islands Hydrographic Demarcation, approved by Royal Decree 49/2023. It is listed in Annex 9 as an action.High-speed network connection to SineuAnd it is one of the priority projects to resolve the water scarcity that affects numerous municipalities in the Plan, many of which do not comply with current regulations due to excess nitrates or salinity problems, as is the case of Costitx, Lloret de Vistalegre, Sineu, Vilafranca de Bonany and Montuïri, the latter with daily contributions from tanker trucks.

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The Pla de Mallorca XXI association has organized this Saturday, November 29, at the Convent of the Dominicans of Lloret de Vistalegre a day of debate dedicated to analyzing the water situation in the Pla de Mallorca, one of the most urgent environmental challenges facing the territory today.

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Water reserves remained at 44% in October, the same level as the previous month and two percentage points lower than the figure recorded a year ago (46%). In a press release, the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle reported that October ended with water reserves at 44% in the Balearic Islands, the same value as the previous month. By island, Mallorca's reserves decreased from 45% to 44%; Menorca's from 41% to 43%; and Ibiza's from 26% to 39%. The overall situation in the archipelago is two percentage points lower than that recorded a year ago (46%). These figures show a notable improvement in Ibiza and Formentera, coinciding with the rainfall associated with Storm Alice. There were no changes in the overall situation compared to the previous month. Thus, only one demand unit (Formentera) remains within the normal scenario, six units (Menorca, Manacor-Felanitx, Migjorn, Palma-Alcúdia, Tramuntana Nord, and Tramuntana Sud) are within the pre-alert scenario, and three (Pla, Artà, and Ibiza) are on alert.

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The Palma Regional Government and City Council presented an agreement this Monday that some experts consider historic: Cort will purchase up to 12.9 cubic hectometers from the desalination plant. This agreement ends a tense relationship between Palma City Council and the Regional Government regarding water, as Jaime Martínez, who made no statement at the end of the event and left the spotlight to the President of the Regional Government, Marga Prohens, did not want to purchase desalinated water. The reason for this reluctance is that the Government produces desalinated water through Abaqua, and therefore, purchasing it means paying for it and consequently having to foot the bill. Prohens has managed to end Palma's water war, and Emaya will purchase more of the desalination plant's production.

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The five municipalities of Ibiza have agreed to supply themselves 100% with water from desalination plants and reduce the use of well water in municipal networks to the bare minimum. This decision was made at the Council of Mayors held at the headquarters of the Island Council, where the President of the Council, Vicent Marí, explained that more desalinated water is produced during the off-season than the municipalities consume and that replacing well water "will reduce the pressure on aquifers" by around one cubic hectometer.

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