Golf course watering row

THE Balearic Minister of Tourism, Joan Flaquer, said yesterday in Parliament that the golf course sector of tourism is completely regulated and is complying with the law which obliges golf courses to be watered with unpurified water. He was responding to accusations from the Balearic MP Margalida Rossello of the United Left/Green Party alliance.
Rossello attacked the Government as “irresponsible” for letting more golf courses be built and for not controlling the “irregularities” committed by them, insisting that, according to her information, many of them are using purified water. Rossello demanded that the Government repeal the Golf Course Law and the General Tourism Law because of the great number of this type of project which are in the process of being constructed and which are having bad repercussions on the land. She added that this “boom” in projects had made an environmental impact on around 1'500 hectares classified at green belt. She said that, for every 18-hole golf course, 2'000 tonnes of water are consumed, equivalent to a town with 8'000 residents. Flaquer asked Rossello why she did not propose modifications to these laws when she was the Minister, and accused her of “talking without common sense” and of “not believing her own words”. Lastly, Flaquer highlighted the importance of promoting a “diversified” tourism which will bring visitors with a lot of money to spend to the islands.