Water company urges careful use of supply

ON the occasion of “International Day for Water”, Palma's Municipal Water Company, Emaya, has warned once more of the importance of the saving and responsible use of water. Emaya pointed out that there exists an overriding need to continue developing policies which encourage the saving of water through responsible use. Emphasis should be on the maximisation of resources and the avoidance of waste. Palma City Council announced yesterday that it has made several investments in infrastructure which captures, collects and conserves the largest quantity possible of water. As a result, reservoirs have been improved, policies of tapping the sources of natural underground rivers have been adopted and the number of green belt areas, parks and gardens have been increased. The mayor's Environment deputy and head of Emaya, Antoni Nadal, signalled that an “important” step has been made in the nurturing of people's awareness of how precious a resource water is, because it has been reflected in the level of consumption. “I hope the Island's inhabitants refrain from squandering water”, he commented, “seeing that it is so vital and yet so scarce”. The Council, furthermore, is “especially sensitive” to the possibility that the Islands may once again experience severe drought similar to that witnessed at the end of the nineties. It is for this reason that they have made “significant steps” in ensuring that appropriate infrastructure is in place to make the most of all drinking water available, and to increase the use of recycled water for the irrigation of green belt areas. In the Council's view, this is one of the reasons why the reservoirs managed by Emaya now stand at 75.8 percent of their capacity, which represents a stored volume of 9'013 cubic metres. The Gorg Blau reservoir is currently holding 72.26 percent of its capacity, in real terms a volume of 5 million cubic metres. Meanwhile Cuber lake is at 79.51 percent of capacity, which can be translated as 3'693 million cubic metres. Tapping the resources of the natural underground rivers, or “aquifers” has paid dividends and led to a strong increase in the volume of water captured and stored at both S'Extremera, Ca'n Negret and Borneta. But it is not just in the Balearics where there is a need to conserve water.
According to World Wildlife Fund/Adena, Spain is at the bottom of the class in Europe when it comes to efficient management of water.
It issued the results of a report investigating the water policies of 23 countries, which put Finland, Switzerland and Belgium at the top of the list and Spain, Greece and Italy at the bottom. The report said that most European countries did not apply efficient measures to solving the problem of water.