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In the midst of a water crisis and in a situation of tourism saturation, the governing team of the Island Council of Menorca continues to promote measures that increase human pressure on the island.
The approximately 800 tourist places that the Council has reactivated, violating the tourism moratorium through the subterfuge of a temporary pool, particularly affect Ciutadella, Sant Lluís and Es Mercadal.
It is worth bearing in mind that these municipalities have for years been the main recipients of tourist population and, therefore, some of the territories most affected by the situation of the aquifers. In fact, the unbalanced relationship between the pressure exerted by a tourist and that of a resident becomes even more evident when we focus on water consumption. While a resident in a traditional population centre consumes an average of 180 to 200 litres of water per day, a tourist staying in a residential development can consume between 800 and 1,000 litres per day.
Faced with this reality, the question is inevitable: how long will we continue increasing pressure on the territory and natural resources without establishing any limit?
GOB considers it a serious mistake to restart tourist places that had ceased to operate and calls for guarantees of water availability to be required for any tourist reactivation that takes place.
A few months ago, the association asked the Island Council to find out in which municipalities the new tourist activities were being allocated, drawing on homes that had ceased to be marketed for tourism.
The municipalities that have received the highest percentages are Ciutadella, Sant Lluís and Es Mercadal, followed at some distance by Alaior. This can be inferred from the Council’s response, which details the allocations by municipality between 1 July 2025 (when the places pool began operating) and 31 May 2026.
The distribution is as follows:
- Ciutadella: 36.76%
- Sant Lluís: 20.75%
- Es Mercadal: 20.16%
- Alaior: 11.07%
- Maó: 5.53%
- Es Migjorn Gran: 4.35%
- Ferreries: 1.38%
GOB considers that the town councils should have a say before tourist places that are inactive are put back into operation and that the Water Resources Department should issue a report prior to the allocation for reactivation.
The operation of the places pool has once again allocated around 160 homes—equivalent to 800 places—to tourist uses after they had ceased their tourist activity.