The environmental organization Terraferida considers that the debate on water in the Balearic Islands cannot be limited to the construction of new desalination plants, as the Government proposes. Its spokesperson, Jaume Adrover, maintains that the problem is older: the territorial model has allowed for decades for dispersed urban growth and housing on rural land to increase pressure on aquifers, which are a public good. "I don't know of any place on the planet where such an abusive consumption of water is made as here due to chalets on rural land," states Adrover, who links this situation with the expansion of single-family housing outside urban centers.

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.