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The holm oak forest is one of the jewels of Menorca’s woodlands, a space that generates magical landscapes. But the experience each person has when visiting one of these places can be very different. Those who are used to mushroom picking know that this is where some of the earliest mushrooms of autumn grow. Hunters will think of it as the place to hunt woodcocks. Others may see it as cubic metres of quality firewood.

Those who walk among the oaks with a naturalist’s eye will identify different plants depending on whether the forest has grown over calcareous materials or over the siliceous soils of northern Menorca. They will detect birds and surely butterflies and caterpillars that now create the “winter spring.” It is all the same holm oak forest, but perspectives are multiple.

The way we perceive the environment and its circumstances largely depends on our preconceptions and on the lens through which we observe reality. Our perceptions are usually conditioned by previous experiences or by the channels that introduce us to the subject (a TV news story, a striking newspaper headline, a bar conversation…).

The season we are going through is usually when the main rains fall, making it possible to recharge the aquifers. It would be very positive to promote agricultural practices that capture water in the fields, instead of channelling it quickly away through ditches and streams. Some such initiatives are already beginning to appear on the island, as an adaptation to climate change.

The desalination approach allows access to large volumes of water, but it requires many millions of euros that we will all have to pay. The price of water multiplies at least fivefold. Yet, those who generate the greatest consumption are not ordinary citizens. It is the usual case of privatising profits and socialising losses.

Building a desalination plant involves many years of procedures, followed by a long process of expropriations to connect it to the distribution network. Ciutadella has had a desalination plant for about 15 years, and it is still not connected to the main network. The costs and administrative difficulties ultimately discourage its implementation.

In contrast, working with the major consumers, who are only a few dozen in each municipality, produces results within weeks or months. In this case, the effort to save water and make possible investments does not fall on all citizens, but on those whose consumption is extraordinarily above what is reasonable. It is often forgotten that the law establishes that water is a public good, subject to the concession of specific volumes.

Desalination is designed for urban uses, whereas controlling large consumers benefits the whole territory. This is of crucial importance for the future of our landscape.

If work were done on large extractions throughout the year — not only when we are on maximum alert — and if agricultural practices were encouraged on hundreds of hectares with infiltration potential, perhaps we could increase the chances of a future that heals the wounds inflicted on the island, instead of deepening them.

By controlling water extraction, we might once again see water in the springs and streams. And the holm oaks, already suffering from heat stress due to rising temperatures, would have a better chance of continuing to provide what each of us finds when visiting them.

 

(This text is an adaptation of the original article published by Miquel Camps, as coordinator of territorial policy for the GOB, in the Menorca newspaper on 13/10/2025).