The price of success: asphalt, waste, and a water emergency

One figure among the many that illustrate the island's reality is enough to understand what has happened in the first 25 years of the 21st century in territorial terms: water consumption has skyrocketed to such an extent that, to meet the needs of the growing population and a tourism sector attracting more than fifteen million people, water desalination has increased by 220%. In 1999, the Balearic Islands desalinated 10.2 million cubic meters of water; in 2024, this figure reached 32.9 million. This increase in desalination, with "the associated energy consumption," as the GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group) has denounced on several occasions, represents "a clear example of the unsustainability of the Balearic development model," in the words of its spokesperson, Margalida Ramis. Along these same lines, geographer Ivan Murray determined, in a study conducted a few years ago, that the Islands consume what they don't have: "We would need 16 archipelagos like ours to balance resource consumption and the territory's capacity to generate them," he states. The increase in desalination, with eight units currently installed and four more on the way, demonstrates how the Islands have based their economic model on "occupying more and more territory, causing significant alteration of the natural environment over the past 25 years," says Miquel Àngel March, former spokesperson for the GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group). "The rural land, which has been transformed into urban development, is an example of this phenomenon that seems to have no solution," he laments. The artificialization of the land

Water consumption far exceeding the islands' capacity can also be seen in energy and waste production. The Pla de Mallorca, Formentera, and Ibiza are facing a very complicated water situation, "and desalination alone is not the solution. What's needed is to stop it once and for all," explains March. According to data from Terraferida, an organization that emerged precisely during this quarter-century of runaway growth, "between 2015 and 2021, approximately 11.2 square kilometers of land in Mallorca were developed, most of which (nearly 70%) was agricultural or forest land unaffected by previous urbanization," states Jaume Adrover: "Intact fields and forests were transformed by concrete in just six years, a rate that reflects the uncontrolled expansion of land and resource consumption."

Water scarcity is exacerbated by the proliferation of private swimming pools throughout the archipelago. According to recent data, there are almost 80,000 legal swimming pools in the Balearic Islands and an estimated 20,000 more illegal ones. These are not just decorative elements: evaporation and pool filling account for between 4% and 5% of total urban water consumption in the Balearic Islands, significantly contributing to the pressure on a resource that is already in a critical state.

The Andratx Case

Not all the land acquired in the territory over these 25 years has been legal. One of the most notorious cases of illegal urban development in the entire country was the Andratx case, for which former mayor Eugenio Hidalgo was sentenced to prison. For decades, the municipality allowed all kinds of illegal developments to flourish. A few months ago, the demolition of the illegal apartments in Cala Llamp brought an end to a long history of irregular permits. "And there's still work to be done in Montport," recalls a legal source who requests anonymity.

Matas's Highways

Furthermore, in these 25 years, the Islands have experienced several historic citizen mobilizations: during the government of Jaume Matas (2003-2007), against a development model that sought to solve mobility problems through asphalt. "Over time, unfortunately, it has been demonstrated once again that the citizens were right, due to the lack of investment in public transport and, above all, an unsustainable increase in tourism and population," says March.

The Prohens legalizations

While Francina Armengol's government was criticized for failing to halt this trend, the arrival of Marga Prohens's administration "has not only failed to change anything, but has actually worsened the situation," states GEN-GOB spokesperson Neus Prats, who is highly critical of the regulations that "use the pretext of concrete to legalize irregular constructions, even on protected land," she laments. GOB Mallorca has deemed the recent legislative reforms "the biggest urban planning coup of the last 50 years," because they massively open the door to construction on rural land, thus accelerating the loss of agricultural, forest, and natural areas and fragmenting essential ecological corridors. This expansion occurs despite technical warnings about the ecological and social carrying capacity of the territory. Prohens's new urban planning regulations even include the possibility of constructing buildings on rural land. The so-called Transition Areas (TAs) are the latest episode in the controversy surrounding land-use change. Arguing the need for more housing, the People's Party (PP), supported by Vox, has pushed for the rezoning of rural areas. Even the College of Architects, which includes many professionals who benefit from this, has warned of the "irreversible impacts on the landscape and the ecological functionality of the land."