Water reserves up

To back up his claims, he reported that the water reserves in Majorca have increased by 10 percent this year in comparison to last year. In Ibiza water reserves have increased by 21 percent and in Minorca reserves have decreased by only 1 percent.

The amount of water that is extracted at the Llubí water table has been reduced by 81 percent this year. In this way, during the first three months of this year, only 1.9 million cubic metres of water was extracted compared to 2.5 million extracted during the same period in 2004.

With regards to the desalination process, the amount of desalinated water has increased by 4.5 million cubic metres in the Balearic Islands this year, 3.6 million cubic metres corresponds to Majorca and the remaining corresponds to Ibiza and Formentera, 894.592 cubic metres.

Jaume Font said it is very important to recuperate and preserve the water reserves on the islands.
He also added that the Balearic Government should manage the water extraction process better so that the quality of water meets the EU regulations.
To improve the water level situation, the Balearic Government recently agreed to build four new desalination plants, in Andratx, Alcudia, Ciudadela and Santa Eulalia.

The building works should be finished at the end of 2007 or beginning of 2008.
However, the Central Government and the Balearic Government still have not sat down and talked about the funding for these four desalination plants, said Font.

These negotiations are due to take place during this year.
The Balearic Government has signed several agreements with the Councils of Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza to repair the holes in the water pipes. For this year the Government has granted 1.3 million euros for this work and at the end of the term of office the Government and the three Councils will have spent 10 million euros on this type of work.