Urgent measures needed to combat Albufera water deterioration

At a meeting of the park's governing board on Thursday, the director, Maties Rebassa, provided data about water quality. This report, says GOB, shows there to have been a serious loss of environmental quality because of a deterioration in the condition of the water. This is affecting submerged plants and waterfowl.

This deterioration is being caused for three reasons: a rise in salt because of the over-exploitation of the aquifer; the spill of brackish and salty water from various sources; the nitrates and phosphates being washed into the park from inadequate treatment plants and because of agricultural activity next to the park.

Nineteen measures have been proposed by the director in order to rectify the situation, but GOB is stressing the need for more concrete proposals than those being made. The conditions, the group says, are the worst they have been since the park was created.

In August, there was a major spillage of faecal water in Albufera, and it was said that there had been others which had been on a lesser scale but hadn't been reported.

GOB, which has been a regular critic of the management of Albufera, drew attention earlier this year to the vastly reduced populations of mallards and coots. And this in a nature park which today is one of the sites for the "Mallorca Birding" race.