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In the development of Platges de Fornells, procedures have begun to allow the construction of 116 villas and 297 hotel beds. During the environmental assessment phase, GOB has written to the Balearic Government to warn that there is no water available in the aquifer.
This development in the north of Menorca started its procedures in 1969, when it was declared a National Tourism Interest Centre by the Francoist Ministry of Tourism. Construction began in the 1980s, and the Island Territorial Plan of 2003 redefined its configuration, as happened with many other planned tourist growths.
After many years being halted or with deficiencies detected during the procedures, the planned development over about 19 hectares of coastline is now intended to be reactivated.
The urban planning process itself has not yet been opened to public exhibition, but a consultation process has been carried out by the environmental authority of the Balearic Government. GOB has submitted some considerations.
An aquifer in worrying decline
One of the most notable issues is the lack of available water. Indeed, the s’Albaida aquifer, where the wells of Sa Roca that supply the development are located, shows an unfavourable evolution, especially considering the trends of the last ten years, which indicate that water extraction exceeds the availability of the resource.
The most critical situation is identified precisely in the pumping field for the urban supply from Mercadal to Sa Roca. In this area, levels have fallen by up to 28 metres since the 1980s and around 17 metres since the late 1990s. Of the 13 monitored points in the aquifer, in the last decade, 5 are considered stable and 8 declining (in some cases very significantly), and therefore no recovery in levels is detected.
Estimated consumption figures are not realistic
The estimated consumption that the Partial Plan proposes for the single-family homes is 250 L/person/day. To determine these parameters, it refers to article 33 of the Balearic Islands Hydrological Plan. However, this would actually be the desirable consumption that the plan sets as a target, not the current real consumption of a single-family home in a landscaped area.
To take a similar case, in the coastal settlements of Sant Lluís, consumption ranges between 452 and 538 L/person/day. This doubles the estimate made for Platges de Fornells.
GOB has requested that the Partial Plan incorporate real and credible consumption calculations.
The lack of water and the island’s capacity
The lack of drinking water is a problem that is becoming widespread in Menorca and represents a warning of capacity limits being exceeded.
Before someone proposes building a desalination plant in Es Mercadal, it might be necessary to analyse whether it is in Menorca’s interest to increase villas and hotel beds on the coast, which will increase the saturation problem during the summer.
This issue directly depends on the tourism carrying capacity to be defined by the Island Council. The first document that became known proposed an increase of 24,000 places beyond the current capacity. But it is evident that this forecast does not fit with water availability.