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Drought on Mallorca island - Deià community stops water supply on 3 days a week

Posted by (Schwerin) on

"The holiday island of Mallorca (Majorca) is now experiencing acute water shortages in many places. In the municipality of Deià on the west coast, several districts are now completely shutting off the water supply several days a week. Mayor Joan Ripoll wants to turn off the water on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until further notice.

According to the town hall in Deià, weekly water consumption in the municipality currently stands at 3.3 million liters. Around 37 percent of this is being delivered by truck this summer. Large consumers such as hotels in particular have now had their taps turned off. The measure is to remain in place until the underground water reservoirs have recovered. The luxury hotel La Residencia expects this to take two months.

The water shortage is particularly severe in the center of Mallorca. The Balearic government already considers the situation there to be precarious. In Pla de Mallorca, consideration is being given to declaring several of the region's 14 municipalities disaster areas so that the water supply can be secured in the short term by tanker trucks and financed by the Balearic government."

Source: article by Die Zeit, translated with DeepL

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An interesting and ever evolving challenge - especially as climate change slowly moves along.

It's always a balance of resources (natural and $$$) and public will (and luck, perhaps). I was watching some documentary on Rome and their wondrous aqueduct system which allowed them to flourish like few other places of the era. It was a feat probably only achievable with a growing empire to feed its development of the heart. It was also likely a weapon used to eventually bring Rome to its knees as the "barbarians" could destroy the aqueducts far outside the city, and cripple the city.

Would Majorca benefit from past, present, and future INFRASTRUCTURE development that keeps pace with population (locals and tourist) growth? Or are they simply in a bad patch where things will eventually return to "normal"?

Generally, islands are at a bit of a disadvantage for "easy" solutions that involve resources from off island. But can Majorca build its way to a better system of water collection, retention, distribution, and efficiency - to meet current and future demands? In the modern era of understanding the value of more permeable surfaces allowing rain water to not "flow away", as well as tackling the challenge at the user end through higher efficiency and/or lower consumption appliances & plumbing fixtures, plus reducing loss over transmission (think 100 yr old pipes that aren't keeping up) and greater storage during the wetter times, and they might just be in that awkward position of how to prioritize things to get their balance correct.

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