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Declaring the sa Roca aquifer to be in poor condition and curbing large-scale consumption should be priorities in water management in Es Mercadal.

GOB has submitted objections to the Sustainable Water Management Plan of Es Mercadal and highlights a serious situation in the water reserves of the urban area supplied by the s’Albaida aquifer.

Some monitoring points have shown a downward trend for more than 20 years, but the situation has worsened significantly over the past ten years.

Specifically, of the 13 piezometers installed in groundwater body 1902 Sa Roca, stability is detected in 5 of them, a downward trend in 4 cases, and a strongly downward trend in another 4. Therefore, piezometric levels are declining in 61% of the cases and show no recovery in the remainder.

The estimated future demand far exceeds the capacity of the aquifer.

The supply company estimates that the municipality will have to serve a maximum accommodation capacity of 39,440 inhabitants and an average population of 20,686 inhabitants by 2030. If this demand is met with the current allocation of 312.7 litres per inhabitant per day, and adding the percentage of unregistered water that is nevertheless extracted (30.5%), an annual volume of 3.395 hm³ is estimated.

At present, extraction from groundwater body 1902 Sa Roca already exceeds the maximum allocation authorised by the Hydrological Plan, and with the projected growth it will exceed the authorised volume by more than double (3.395 hm³/year compared to the 1.576 hm³ authorised).

Consequently, in order to accommodate such a scenario, water supplies would have to be reduced by more than half, an outcome that is not realistic by 2027.

In addition, this situation is compounded by the lack of control over large agricultural irrigation schemes and by the intention of the Island Council to significantly increase the number of tourist beds in Menorca, as the study on the island’s tourist carrying capacity proposes adding 24,000 tourist places to those already existing.

For this reason, GOB has requested that the Management Plan include a recommendation to review the projected growth and adapt it to the real availability of water resources.

Classifying the groundwater body as being in poor status

According to Article 27 of the Hydrological Plan of the Balearic Islands, groundwater bodies are considered to be in poor quantitative status when exploitation exceeds 80% of the available resource, and they also show a clear decrease in piezometric levels.

Extraction from groundwater body 1902 Sa Roca exceeds 100% of the allocation set by the Hydrological Plan of the Balearic Islands.

As already shown, the outlook for the coming years further aggravates the situation. In light of this reality, it is necessary to request that the groundwater body be declared in poor quantitative status.

Swimming pools, lawns and vehicle cleaning

The condition of the aquifer calls for action to prevent new non-essential water uses. It should be noted that the Menorca Demand Unit as a whole has been in a pre-alert phase since September 2023. For its part, the Es Mercadal Demand Unit is supplied exclusively by the sa Roca aquifer, which has already been shown to be in poor quantitative status.

GOB has requested a ban on new swimming pools as well as on lawn extensions exceeding 5 m². It has also asked for a maximum pressure to be set in vehicle washing facilities, allowing water savings of approximately 50% for this use.