Juan Calvo Director of the Alliance for Water a Newspaper of Ibiza and Formentera
This month, the critical situation of water shortage that the island of Ibiza is suffering is again in the news. Underground water reserves have reached a historic low of 29%. A similar value had only been seen 10 years ago, when in September 2015 it reached 25%. At that time, the situation was so critical that it generated great social alarm among both citizens and the tourism sector and farmers on the island. Despite the social unrest that it caused, the positive part was the creation of the Water Alliance as a space for dialogue and knowledge to respond to a problem that was getting bigger and bigger. Ten years later, we are back with a new serious drought, although during this time we have learned and improved the water situation on the island. From the Alliance we have worked to analyze and raise awareness of the water problem on the island: we have urged the competent public administrations to act, but we have also given them support when they have requested it to improve water management.
During the last drought, one of the Alliance's first milestones was the demand for the start-up of the Santa Eulària desalination plant, which had not started operating since its construction 6 years ago. We all know the strong environmental and economic impact of this type of infrastructure, but, as we always explain, it was necessary to get the patient out of the ICU, that is, reduce the pressure on the aquifers and guarantee a safe and quality water source. Why was it not started at that time? We will never know; it could be due to the bureaucracy of the administration, unable to give a quick response. It could also have been due to the lack of interest in starting it. It is always more lucrative for some to supply cheap well water until it runs out, than to have to supply desalinated water with a very high production price. Fortunately, the Santa Eulària desalination plant finally became operational in 2019, allowing much of the urban well water consumption to be replaced with desalinated water. If this were not the case, the current crisis would be much worse and the aquifers would be much more salinized and depleted.
However, 10 years later and with one more desalination plant in operation, we are back to square one with minimum aquifer levels and a critical water shortage situation. The positive side is that we have learned some lessons along the way. The first is that, as long as the administration does not modernize and become more efficient, it will always be late with the implementation of infrastructure. For example, the average time on the islands to start up a desalination plant has been more than 10 years on average. The second lesson is that generating more water resources, such as increasing the production of desalinated water, in practice causes greater demand and urban growth. In this sense, we must go to the root of the problem, which is the massification of tourism, and commit to a real change in the sustainable tourism model to reduce its serious ecological impact on the island and, ultimately, give us back the lost quality of life. The third lesson is to reduce leaks in the water supply network. Thus, the problem of water shortage would be largely solved by reducing losses, which "are the largest water consumption on the island". It should be remembered that municipalities such as Santa Eulària or Sant Josep have losses exceeding 27% and, in total, an annual volume similar to the production of the Santa Eulària desalination plant is lost in the supply network on the island.
Another lesson, and perhaps the most important, is the need to close the water cycle and use the regenerated water from the treatment plants to recover the aquifers and have water for farmers in drought situations like the one we are experiencing. Because in Ibiza the same story has always been repeated when there has been a lack of water: the countryside has been the main victim of the strong water demands of urban and tourist centers. In this sense, we must remember the revolt in the nineties of the residents and farmers of Santa Gertrudis in the face of the threat of overexploitation of their aquifer to supply water to the hotels of Playa d'en Bossa. But also currently the problems continue with farmers who leave the activity due to lack of water and homes on rustic land with exhausted wells and endless waits to access water through tanker trucks that are not within reach.
For this reason, we cannot afford to throw approximately 14 hm³ of purified water into the sea each year, equivalent to 5.600 Olympic swimming pools per year. Another piece of information in this regard is that a tenth of this water would be enough to guarantee water for agriculture on the island. For all this, from the Alliance we never tire of repeating that it is a priority to take advantage of the commissioning of the new Ibiza treatment plant to take advantage of all its water and give it a second life, vital for our island. Yes, it is true that the wastewater received by the treatment plant is salty because the municipal sewerage system is in very poor condition and saline water infiltrates from the subsoil. But it is also true that today there is technology to reduce the salinity of purified water so that it can be reused. In addition, the infrastructure could be easily installed with osmosis and regeneration systems in transportable containers. There are already other similar experiences in the Balearic Islands, such as the Sant Lluís wastewater treatment plant, in Menorca, where the Balearic Islands Government developed a pilot project for the regeneration of purified water and its infiltration into the subsoil with funds from sustainable tourism.
For all this, from the Alliance we demand the urgent installation of a water regeneration system in the new Ibiza treatment plant, accompanied by a regulation tank that also serves as a fire tank. It would have multiple benefits: its use for extinguishing forest fires, recharging the Serra Grossa aquifer by pouring the regenerated water into the two nearby streams, its use as a dispenser of regenerated water for farmers, as well as for tanker trucks that can distribute regenerated water for the irrigation of parks and gardens, both private and public. It could even be used for the environmental recovery of the Ses Feixes wetland. All these actions could be financed with the sustainable tourism tax, which should be entirely allocated to improving the water cycle, as we have been demanding for years from the Alliance.
There are numerous successful cases of closing the water cycle that should serve as a model and inspiration for us. In Barcelona, in situations of water emergency such as the one suffered last year, the wastewater from the city's main treatment plant is purified, pumped upstream of the Llobregat River, discharged into the river, captured again downstream, purified and supplied as drinking water. In California, with a climate similar to ours of severe recurring droughts, some cities such as Los Angeles are working to directly connect the treatment plants with the water treatment plants to supply water for human consumption. Without having to go that far, what we propose in the new treatment plant in Ibiza is a simple solution to an emergency situation, but how long will it take before we see the reuse of water in the treatment plants on the island and that the water is not discharged into the sea when we need it most?
