End to water problems in Pollença Port

Drilling for water at Son Vila in Pollensa has proved to be successful and abundant water has been found in one of the two wells which have been opened. This is expected to put an end to the chronic shortage of good quality water in the Port of Pollença. The proposal to drill more wells in the Son Vila area was accepted by Ibaen (Balearic Energy Institute) and the Pollensa town council after plans to install a mobile desalination plant in the port were rejected. At the same time, the decision was taken to lay pipelines from Son Vila to the port, as a matter of urgency. The lack of good quality water in the Port is an historical problem in Pollença where every summer, except this year, high levels of nitrates have been found in the water. Biel Cerdà, the PSM (Majorcan Socialist Party) councillor in charge of the environment said yesterday “we hope to solve the chronic problem of water shortages in the Port with these wells in Son Vila.” There are plans to drill three wells at Son Vila, and the water will be piped to Can Puig, which is where the storage tank for the port is to be found. It was initially calculated that the pipeline for carrying the water to the port would be ready for this summer. However, Cerdà explained yesterday that “the heavy rains this summer meant that we would have no problems, and allowed us to slow down the work.” He went on to say that everything will be ready by the beginning of next year. The cost of drilling and building the pipeline is in the region 1.2 million euros and will be financed in equal parts by the Pollesça town council and the Balearic Institute of Energy. Although some sectors see mobile desalination plants as a solution to the island's serious water problems, environmentalists are opposed to them because of their high energy consumption. They want the government to introduce more water saving measures.