The invisible cost of Pollença's tourism model

PollençaWhen speaking of tourist pressure in Mallorca, the image is usually that of a large hotel facade. In Pollença, however, the reality is different. The municipality has built a good part of its model on holiday rentals. Today it continues to be one of the municipalities with the most tourist-use homes in the Balearic Islands, and around 68% of tourist places correspond to this type of accommodation, a reality very different from that of other predominantly hotel destinations.

This model has profoundly transformed the municipality. Photographs of Port de Pollença from 50 years ago show a much more open front line, with less construction and much lower human pressure. Today, the landscape is different. But the most significant change is not what is seen. It is what has happened underground and under the sea.

More than a problem of dumping

Every summer, episodes of turbid water return, along with complaints about possible spills and debates about the environmental quality of the bay. The temptation is to seek a single responsible party. Ignasi Cifre, a member of Arrels Marines, believes this is precisely the first mistake. "The degradation is multifactorial," he summarizes. In his opinion, water quality does not depend solely on a specific discharge, but on a set of pressures that have accumulated over decades.

This is not an exclusive conclusion of Arrels Marines. Studies carried out in recent years also indicate that the inner bay is a particularly vulnerable area because it is shallow and water renewal is limited. This means that any impact has greater effects than in other parts of the coast. The investigations divide these pressures into two large blocks: those originating from land and those arriving from the sea.

On land, studies point to decades of urban growth, the construction of developments on infrastructures that are now obsolete, and a sewage network that needs renovation. At sea, intense nautical activity, permanent moorings, discharges from boats, and coastal transformation complete a much more complex picture than that of a simple spill.

Cifre insists that the municipality's own development model helps to understand the situation. Unlike large hotel complexes, a very significant portion of visitors stay in scattered chalets and homes, many located on rural land. This involves swimming pools, gardens, private wells, and, in some cases, individual sanitation systems that are not always connected to the public network.

“When we only look at the treatment plant, we neglect part of the problem,” he explains. According to him, there are still homes that function with septic tanks or cesspools, some of which may present leaks. This is one of the hypotheses that researchers have on the table after verifying that the treatment plant's analyses comply with regulations, while, at certain times, the Sant Jordi stream shows inferior quality.

Water consumption is another piece of the puzzle. A good part of the scattered properties obtain water directly from aquifers. During the summer months, when the municipality's population multiplies, the demand derived from swimming pools, garden irrigation, and tourist activity also increases.

Cifre warns that this sustained pressure can favor the entry of seawater into coastal aquifers. “When an aquifer becomes salinized, it is very difficult to recover it,” he warns.

For Arrels Marines, some of the most important problems in the bay barely appear in public debate. One of the examples is artificial beaches. Decades ago, the addition of sand buried marine meadows and algae communities that performed an essential function within the ecosystem. Without this vegetation, sediments are stirred up more easily, water turbidity increases, and the light available for many species decreases. It is a slow process that still has consequences today.

To these effects are added breakwaters, docks, changes in natural water circulation, illegal moorings, underwater noise, and sewage overflows during episodes of intense rainfall.

“It is impossible to say which is the most harmful factor,” Cifre states. “Ecosystems do not function as a sum of independent problems. An apparently small impact can trigger much larger consequences.” This is what scientists call cascading effects.

Looking beyond water

The black flag awarded this year by Ecologists in Action has once again placed the bay at the center of public debate. But, beyond the distinction, the challenge remains the same: adapting infrastructures designed for another Pollença to a municipality that multiplies its population and pressure on the territory every summer.

Looking at photographs from half a century ago allows us to understand the extent to which the landscape has changed. Understanding what happens under the water and underground is much more difficult. But it is precisely there that, according to Arrels Marines, many of the keys are found to explain why one of Mallorca's most valuable natural spaces has been giving warning signs for years.