Menorca is becoming unsustainable: more tourists, more cars, and less water.

PalmMenorca, the Biosphere Reserve island with the benchmark territorial and sustainability model for the rest of the archipelago, is beginning to falter. Summer is starting with a growing forecast for tourist arrivals, but with less water and less decarbonization and waste separation than expected. It will also be the last Balearic island to implement measures to reduce vehicle traffic in the summer, although the PP government in the Consell recognizes that the roads are already much more saturated than the island's current road network can absorb. Some indicators of the environmental strategy it pledged to implement by 2030 have even regressed. This is, today, the environmental snapshot of Menorca.

More tourists

Through May, passenger traffic at Menorca Airport is already 3.2% higher than last year, approaching one million people. Arrivals at the ports of Ciutadella and Mahon have also increased. The number of residents and tourists, representing 160% more than the current population, has also increased.

In the last five years, since 2019, the entry of cars through the ports, especially Ciutadella, has grown by almost 40%. About 60,000 enter Maó and close to 200,000 already enter the port of Ciutadella, which is triple the figures from 10 years ago. The direct consequence is that, as confirmed by a study commissioned in 2023 by the previous left-wing government in the Consell de Menorca, the excess of vehicles on the island's roads is 30%, and 45% of those circulating are rental cars.

The current PP government in the Consell, which has never accepted the previous study, already admits that current traffic is exceeding the capacity of Menorcan roads. This is confirmed, says Councilor Juan Manuel Delgado, by the carrying capacity study that was commissioned and has not yet been made public. However, no measures will be taken in this regard, at least until next summer, despite the fact that the Biosphere Reserve Law already allows Menorca to restrict vehicle entry since 2023. Even Mallorca and Ibiza have moved ahead and have already implemented the necessary legal mechanisms to follow in the footsteps of Formentera, the only island that already imposes restrictions.

From the opposition, the PSOE and Més have persistently criticized the delay in implementing measures in this regard. The Socialists will present a motion to all Menorcan administrations to force the Consell (Regional Council) to implement them. "It seems incredible that it was the Consell (Regional Council) of Ibiza that has spearheaded this initiative," says the secretary general of the PSOE, Pepe Mercadal, who points out that, until now, Menorca had always been a "benchmark" in tourism management.

Less water

The season has begun on the island with water reserves at 51%, the lowest level in the last decade, and with municipalities that have been unable to supply drinking water for almost a year, such as Maó. Furthermore, the forecasts for population growth and tourist accommodation contrast with the reality of the water shortages experienced, for example, in Ciutadella, where Water Resources has already imposed the requirement to replace 45% of the water currently drawn from wells with desalinated water. The idea is to allow the catchments to be discontinued and for 57% of all water supplied to the population to be desalinated.

In eastern Menorca, the construction of a desalination plant is also already seen as necessary, while the municipalities of Maó and Sant Lluís are warning large consumers and revising their rates upwards to financially penalize overconsumption.

Even so, there are some solutions underway. City councils are taking advantage of multi-million-dollar investments in improving the water cycle to renew pipes and reduce leaks in distribution networks, while the regional government is promoting projects to reuse treated water for irrigation. The Menorca Council has also launched a large-scale project to harness and manage rainwater from the main industrial estates. The idea is to collect the water that falls on the industrial estates of Maó, Alaior, Sant Lluís, Ciutadella, and Ferreries to recover 700,000 cubic meters each year, the equivalent of five Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Less recycling

Six of Menorca's eight municipalities still do not implement the door-to-door manure collection system and face financial penalties from the European Union for not achieving the recycling rates currently required by regulations. Only Castell (71%) and Maó (50.7%) are compliant, having already initiated separate collection. The rest are far from the target, especially Ciutadella (34.9%), Alaior (35.6%), and Mercadal (39.7%). The average rate of separate waste collection across Menorca is only 43%.

Wasted renewable energy

The Menorca 2030 Strategy for the complete decarbonization of the island is stalled because, although the supply of renewable energy generating parks and facilities is growing, the current electricity system cannot respond, at least until the second cable with Mallorca is commissioned. This figure exceeds the 130 MW the island needs to meet peak summer demand. But the system is not prepared to absorb such production, making it unfeasible in the short term to meet the goal of 85% of the island's energy generated from renewable sources. Under these circumstances, dependence on the thermal power plant in the port of Mahón remains, and CO2 emissions have increased.