Majorca´s water tables are 50 percent full

PALMA
MAJORCA'S underground water reserves are 50 percent full after the rain in December, while just one month before, in November, they were just 39 percent full.

The level of 50 percent is an average, as the percentage of water held in each aquifer is variable according to its capacity.
So, Ses Fonts Ufanes are 100 percent full, while the Sa Marina de Llevant aquifer is only 6 percent full.
In any case, seven of the thirteen aquifers on Majorca are above 50 percent of their capacity.
It is worth remembering that 2006 closed with a surplus of 18 percent in the water reserves on Majorca.
On Minorca, the situation is identical to that on Majorca, with aquifers 50 percent full.
However, last year it did have a worrying deficit of 28 percent in its water reserves.
On Ibiza, a traditionally dry islands, the water tables are at a very satisfactory 78 percent of their capacity and, like Majorca, it had a surplus of water reserves in 2006.

It is curious that Minorca, a traditionally wet island, is in a worse water situation than the rest of the islands, although since 2000 the level of water in its aquifers has been quite stable, with any variations always around 50 percent.

However, after the intense drought of 2000 to 2001, the trend has been upwards for the level of water in the aquifers of Majorca and Ibiza. During that period (2000 to 2001) the minimum level in the reservoirs of Majorca was 17 percent and the minimum in Ibiza scarcely above 10 percent.

The production of desalinated water in the Balearics increased to 25.456 hectometres last year, a year when the extractions from the Sa Marineta spring contributed 3.9 hectometres, according to the Balearic Ministry for the Environment. The development of desalinated water in the Balearics has progressively increased since 2002, the year in which 17.935 hectometres were produced, which allowed the extractions of water from Sa Marineta to be reduced.

According to the Ministry for the Environment, the extractions from Sa Marineta have gone from 7.204 hectometres in 2002 to 3.908 hectometres in 2006.