Minister quits as water crisis reaches boiling point

Just hours before the Balearic Minister for Agriculture Joan Mayol resigned yesterday, the farming community was urged to calm down, with Chief Minister Francesc Antich calling for “tranquillity” as the argument rages over what the local government is going to do about the water crisis. “We're working on it,” Antich said, adding that his government is trying to obtain the best solutions. But later Mayol presented Antich with his letter of resignation saying that everybody involved has become so tense and nervous that it has become extremely difficult to find the right solutions. Farmers union bosses last week said that they feel “cheated” by the Ministry and that they have lost all faith in the Minister - which is why the union called on Antich to get involved and help sort the situation out. In response Mayol said the problems are being caused by a minority, the farming community. Antich said that all agricultural parties involved should be “combining their forces” to reach a positive answer, not waste their energy on complicating the situation with a negative approach. However, help appears to be on the horizon, not from the Balearic government, but from central government. Over the next few days Madrid intends to announce a series of measures to help ease the effects of the drought, not only in the Balearics, but across Spain. Financial aid may also be forthcoming from Brussels ahead of a European agricultural summit in Luxembourg next month. The European Commission is well aware of Spain's drought and is studying a number of alternative ways to helping Spain's worst hit regions, such as the Balearics and Murcia, to survive the water crisis.