La entrada Water reserves in Ibiza and Formentera rise again in December and face the winter out of the drought alert se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>In the case of Ibiza, the level of reserves has risen from 47% to 48% in December, a moderate but significant rise that confirms the improvement initiated after the heavy rains of October, when the island managed to get out of the drought alert situation after months at historic lows. As reported by La Voz de Ibiza, the dana ‘Alice’ was key to boost aquifers after a critical period. That month saw an increase from 26% to 39% of water reserves.
This progress allowed Ibiza to officially abandon the drought alert at the end of November, placing it in pre-alert, a scenario that is maintained at the beginning of winter.
Formentera remains among the territories with the best water situation, forming part of the 23% of the archipelago that is in a normal situation, together with Migjorn and Manacor-Felanitx. The island has also recorded an increase in its reserves, benefiting from a rainier than usual autumn and early winter.
Overall, the demand units of Ibiza and Formentera are among those that have experienced a positive evolution during December, according to official data from the Balearic Government, which reinforces the stability of supply for the first months of 2026.
The increase in reserves is directly related to rainfall. December has been a wet month in the Balearic Islands, with an average of 88.9 liters per square meter, well above the usual values. In Ibiza 78.5 l/m² were recorded and in Formentera 53.8 l/m², figures above the historical average for the period.
In addition, the percentage of interannual precipitation in the Pitiusas reached 137%, which explains the progressive recovery of the aquifers after a particularly dry summer.
Despite the favorable evolution, the situation remains contained at the Balearic level. The overall index of the Hydrographic Demarcation stands at 0.421, below the values recorded one and two years ago, which makes it necessary to maintain caution. 60.8% of the Balearic territory remains in pre-alert, including Ibiza, while only a limited part has reached normality.
The Balearic Government stresses that forecasts for January point to a new increase in bookings, although no relevant changes are expected in the short term, beyond the possible consolidation of the improvement in some demand units.
La entrada Water reserves in Ibiza and Formentera rise again in December and face the winter out of the drought alert se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada 24 months for Ibiza to stop praying for a guaranteed drinking water supply se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>Until this work is completed, the system will continue to operate with no real safety margin. As happened this summer, a major breakdown in any of the desalination plants during the high season would jeopardize the supply, since production is working at maximum capacity and the only available buffer is that offered by the reservoirs. There is water in storage for a few hours. Maybe a few days.
The project will allow the Santa Eulària desalination plant to increase from 16,000 to 22,000 cubic meters per day, almost 40% more, through the incorporation of a fourth reverse osmosis rack.
This is not a local improvement: the island’s three desalination plants are interconnected, so the new flow can be redistributed according to the needs of the system as a whole.
This point is key because the Ibiza desalination plant cannot be expanded, which makes Santa Eulària the only structural pillar capable of absorbing the growth in demand, until the fourth desalination plant is available for which it will be many years, perhaps a decade.
The Sant Antoni plant, on the other hand, will be reinforced with a mobile desalination plant, a backup solution designed for emergencies and consumption peaks, but insufficient to solve the basic problem. It will provide an additional 1,000 cubic meters per day.
The project comes after years of sustained increase in the consumption of desalinated water, caused by the accelerated deterioration of aquifers, both in quantity and quality. According to Abaqua data, Ibiza has gone from consuming about 5 cubic hectometers per year in 2009 to almost 13 in 2024, and everything indicates that in 2025 it will exceed 14 cubic hectometers.
This evolution has led to an increasing number of months of operation at the limit of their capacity, reducing to a minimum the capacity to react to breakdowns, drought episodes or peaks in demand associated with the tourist season.
Meanwhile, the fourth desalination fourth desalination plant in Ibiza remains on paper. It has no defined location, no technical project, and no timetable. To date, it is no more than a political commitment, with no real impact on the island’s production capacity.
For this reason, the Santa Eulària extension has become the centerpiece to prevent the system from collapsing in the coming years.
The project includes the remodeling of the seawater intake, new pipelines, filters and high-pressure equipment, a new reverse osmosis train, improvements in the pumping and distribution of treated water, as well as the adaptation of the electrical and control installations and the brine discharge system.
Everything has been designed with criteria of minimum environmental impact and, above all, with a priority objective: to keep the plant operational during the works, aware that Ibiza cannot afford prolonged stoppages.
The base bidding budget amounts to 9.99 million euros, including VAT. In addition, there is a technical assistance contract for construction management and health and safety coordination for 314,600 euros, with a total term of 25 months. The execution period of the works will be 23 months, once awarded and authorized by the Consell de Govern.
Until the expansion becomes a reality, Ibiza will continue to rely on a system stressed to the maximum, where any relevant failure in a desalination plant during peak demand months could have immediate consequences.
The expansion of Santa Eulària, together with the mobile desalination plant of Sant Antoni and a greater incorporation of desalinated water by the municipalities, will alleviate the pressure on the aquifers and improve the capacity to respond to emergencies.
But the message is clear: for the next 24 months, Ibiza will continue to pray that nothing goes wrong. Only then, if all goes according to plan, can the island begin to leave behind a water management based on the permanent limit.
Unless the rains recharge the aquifers, as the torrential rains of the last two weeks have done.
La entrada 24 months for Ibiza to stop praying for a guaranteed drinking water supply se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada Ibiza starts in 2026 the largest sewerage work in decades to stop flooding se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>Lopez explained during an interview on Radio Ibiza that the city still maintains a unitary network that mixes rainwater and wastewater, a system that collapses when there are episodes of rain. «Almost all municipalities have unitary sanitation networks.
Rainwater and wastewater go through the same network,» he said. The separation of pipes will allow rainwater to circulate through its own pipes and not depend on the clogging that today reduces the useful flow. The city of Ibiza suffered this autumn episodes of saturation linked to accumulations of waste and the inability of the network to absorb heavy rainfall, a problem described by Aqualia as «structural«.
The project is part of the new concession approved by the City Council, which includes 17 million euros in investments during the first eight years and a total of 49 priority actions. These include improvements in hydraulic infrastructures, expansion of rainwater networks, renovation of sanitation, installation of smart meters and increased water efficiency. López pointed out that, once the administrative procedures have been completed, the FCC-Aqualia joint venture will be able to activate the first works foreseen in the contract.
The Aqualia delegate stressed that the most visible incidents in sanitation do not originate in the treatment plants, but in the state of the urban networks. «Wet wipes and grease are the number one problem,» he said. The accumulation of this waste causes a decrease in the useful diameter and favors overflows during rainfall. Added to this is the deterioration caused by seawater infiltration in old pipes, a phenomenon that increases salinity and hinders purification processes.
Aqualia explained that a clean and clog-free network would allow an increase in the production of reclaimed water. «If the water arrives in optimal conditions, it can be used for irrigation or street cleaning,» recalled López. This would reduce the pressure on the desalination plants, which in July and August work at peak demand levels. The municipality aspires to extend the use of reclaimed water in urban services and green areas, which would help to free up drinking water resources in a context of high summer demand.
Although the main work will be carried out in Ibiza, López reviewed the situation in the other municipalities managed by Aqualia. In San Josep, the network – the most extensive on the island – has improved its efficiency to around 75%, while the tender for the new sewerage contract is progressing. In Santa Eulària, the City Council is working on the monitoring of the sewerage system and the improvement of pumping stations. In Sant Joan, the Balearic Water Agency is processing the project for the new Portinatx treatment plant. In Formentera, Aqualia manages a system with total digitalization of meters, with yields close to 90%.
La entrada Ibiza starts in 2026 the largest sewerage work in decades to stop flooding se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada Alice dune boosts water reserves in Ibiza after historic lows se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>Last October’s rains were especially intense in Ibiza and Formentera, where the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) recorded record values. At Ibiza airport, 89.4 liters per square meter fell in a single day, while Formentera reached 78.8 l/m², the highest records since data has been available (2015). The Pitiusas as a whole accumulated 139% of rainfall compared to the average, which has allowed a significant recovery of the aquifers after several months of deficit.
Despite the improvement, Ibiza continues to be in an alert situation, according to the Conselleria’s indicators, while Formentera maintains a normal situation. The autonomous department reminds that the changes of scenario are not automatic: to go from alert to pre-alert, the indicators must remain two consecutive months within the upper range. Mallorca decreases slightly from 45% to 44%, and Menorca improves from 41% to 43%.
The Government’s technicians foresee a new increase in reserves during November, if the autumn rains maintain their usual behavior. The average temperature for the month was 19.6 degrees, 0.7 degrees above normal, making it a warm October, according to the Aemet.
La entrada Alice dune boosts water reserves in Ibiza after historic lows se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada The fourth desalination plant that sets off environmental alarms in Ibiza se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>During the meeting, which brought together more than 30 representatives of environmental associations, the primary, tourism and business sectors, as well as regional and local government officials, the organizations insisted that the priority should be to improve the management of existing water rather than to build new plants. Specifically, they called for accelerating actions to reduce losses in municipal networks, maximizing the use of desalinated water in winter and promoting the reuse of treated water for agricultural and urban purposes.
The organizations, including Friends of the Earth, GEN-GOB, Salvem sa Badia and the Institute of Ibizan Studies, warned that the new desalination plant «would only serve to justify more tourism and urban development», instead of addressing the underlying problem: overcrowding and overexploitation of aquifers. In this sense, they called for establishing clear limits to urban and tourist growth, and moving towards a more sustainable model that guarantees water supply without compromising ecosystems.
For their part, the representatives of the Government, including the general director of Water Resources, Joan Calafat, and the manager of the Balearic Water Agency, Emeterio Moles, asked for «patience» and recalled the actions underway, such as the expansion of the Santa Eulària desalination plant, the remote control of wells and the implementation of regeneration plants in three treatment plants on the island. They also stressed that the municipalities already prioritize the use of desalinated water and are working on the renovation of networks to reduce leaks.
In addition to the discussion on the desalination plant, the Bureau addressed other urgent challenges related to water management on the island, especially the consequences of the recent floods and the persistent drought.
The organizations agreed that Ibiza needs nature-based solutions to improve the resilience of the territory. Among the proposals, they highlighted the restoration of Ses Feixes del Prat de Vila, the renaturalization of torrents and the implementation of agroforestry measures to absorb and infiltrate water during heavy rainfall events, thus reducing the risk of damage in urban areas.
These actions, the participants explained, would make it possible to make better use of rainwater and relieve pressure on aquifers, while helping to preserve ecosystems of high environmental value. In this sense, they insisted that water management should not only focus on supply, but also on restoring the natural balance of the water cycle and strengthening territorial planning to prevent emergencies.
The regional representatives agreed on the importance of these measures and stressed that pilot projects are being prepared in collaboration with the municipalities and the Consell to implement these solutions. However, the entities demanded that these actions be prioritized with the same level of urgency as hydraulic infrastructures.
The Mesa de Diálogo del Agua, which is nine years old since its creation in the middle of the 2016 drought, has consolidated itself as a meeting forum between administrations, environmental organizations and economic sectors to discuss the challenges of water on the island. However, this year’s session showed a clear vision gap between those who are committed to new infrastructures and those who advocate a change of model to curb human pressure on natural resources.
La entrada The fourth desalination plant that sets off environmental alarms in Ibiza se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>La entrada The Govern pushes for Madrid to sign commitments to invest in infrastructure and water cycle in the Balearic Islands se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>This has been communicated by the Councilor of the Sea and Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, on Monday at a press conference, where he expressed the «concern» of the regional executive for the exclusion of the Balearic Islands from the investments in water cycle in different autonomous communities, approved last December 17, in the Council of Ministers, and the subsequent publication in the press of a news item in which it is said, according to the councilor, that «Madrid plans investments in Mallorca for almost 200 million in purification». «This news would seem very good to us if we had this investment signed but, for the moment, there is nothing signed,» Lafuente lamented, which is why he has formally requested an «urgent» meeting with Minister Sara Aagesen so that «if this is serious, if it is a sincere statement, it is signed as soon as possible», since what worries the Government is that this «is a diversionary operation». Precisely, in this sense, the conseller has asked for «seriousness» to the State. «That we have been left out of investments in infrastructure and water cycle in various communities, approved in the Council of Ministers is serious, but that they want to make a fool of us would be very serious,» he said, warning that this Govern «is not willing to be made a fool of by the Ministry, nor the new minister, nor anyone else». Therefore, Lafuente hopes that «in 2025, the Balearic Islands will have signed by the State the financing for the second phase of the treatment plant of Palma, the outfall of Palma and the treatment plant of Santa Margalida and Muro». «If so, the position of this Govern will be of gratitude and collaboration with the State, but if they try to deceive us,» he added, «we will denounce it publicly.»
La entrada The Govern pushes for Madrid to sign commitments to invest in infrastructure and water cycle in the Balearic Islands se publicó primero en La Voz De Ibiza.
]]>