The Balearics authorize 2,865 new wells in three and a half years despite the extreme situation of the aquifers

PalmaBetween 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.

Mallorca concentrates the majority of new extractions. In these three years and eight months, 2,485 wells have been authorized there, almost 87% of the total. In Ibiza, 335 have been granted; in Menorca, 43; and in Formentera, only two. By year, 2023 stands out, when Water Resources authorized 1,256 extractions: 1,105 in Mallorca, 135 in Ibiza, 14 in Menorca, and 2 in Formentera. In 2024, the figure dropped to 526 wells, while in 2025 it rose again to 601. Between January and August 2026, 482 have already been authorized: 399 in Mallorca, 72 in Ibiza, and 11 in Menorca.

The figure may be striking when compared to the state of the Islands' underground reserves, but it does not imply that the Directorate General of Water Resources is granting permits outside of hydrological planning. The Administration is obliged to authorize extractions that meet regulatory requirements. The Director General of Water Resources, Joan Calafat, explained this to ARA Balears in 2024, when in just twelve months about 1,200 new boreholes were authorized: "I have no alternative but to sign the authorizations that meet the requirements," he said. Calafat admitted, at the same time, that the situation of the aquifers was not desirable and raised the need to reform the regulations to better protect the resource. In this regard, only a modification of the Hydrological Plan approved by the Pact would allow for a reduction in pressure on the aquifers, which continue to accumulate extraction requests despite the overexploitation of a significant portion of the freshwater masses.

More than 50,000 wells

The new authorizations are added to a huge network of abstractions. The Balearics exceeded 50,000 legal wells in 2024, according to data from Water Resources published by this newspaper. At that time, groundwater contributed approximately 72% of all water consumed in the Islands. It is an essential resource for the functioning of the Archipelago and, at the same time, a resource that in many places is extracted above the level that would guarantee its recovery. The Government has planned new desalination plants to try to reduce pressure, although experts like Juan Calvo, (Alliance for Water) have explained that human pressure must be controlled and that using desalination as an excuse for urban growth is not the most desirable.

According to official data analyzed by ARA Balears, the main groundwater masses in the Islands exceeded 80% exploitation in June 2025, precisely the percentage that hydrological planning establishes as a reference for preserving the resource. In more than half of the aquifers analyzed, extraction even exceeded 100% of the exploitation capacity: more water was drawn than the system could sustainably assume.

There were significant cases, which currently remain in a similar situation: Port d'Andratx reached 128% exploitation; Ciutadella and Maó were at 105% and 106%, respectively, and in Ibiza, masses like Porroig and Cala Tarida exceeded 115%. The consequence of continuous extraction above recovery capacity is not just the decrease in reserves. In coastal aquifers, the drop in the freshwater level facilitates the entry of seawater and the progressive salinization of the resource.

The red masses

Therefore, not all aquifers have the same authorization regime. The regulations differentiate between bodies of water that are in good condition and those that present problems (quantitative or qualitative), commonly known as red bodies. In the latter, the possibility of authorizing new abstractions is much more restricted.

When the water is of poor quality or the body is in poor condition, a new abstraction for any particular use cannot generally be granted. One of the most relevant exceptions is professional agricultural activity, which has specific treatment within the hydrological planning. Some authorizations have been more than questioned by different entities, as it is considered that there are urban development projects on rural land disguised as professional farmers to gain access to water.

The situation has generated tensions, especially in Menorca, where the availability of groundwater has become one of the main constraints on residential growth and certain economic activities. Information recently published by ARA Balears has brought to light the difficulties in reconciling the protection of aquifers with the demands for new uses and the importance that proving agricultural use can have when it comes to obtaining water from a body subject to restrictions.

The Hydrological Plan reduced the allocation of available resources to 80% precisely with the aim that exploitation would not compromise the recovery of underground bodies, but as long as it comes through professional agricultural activity, Water Resources must authorize it. Currently, the Directorate General of Water Resources has made all the previous documentation of the new Hydrological Plan available to citizens, an "opportunity" to protect aquifers and change criteria, as stated by various voices, such as the specialist and professor at the UIB Cels García.