Water week in Majorca: floods, tourist tax and rates

By Tuesday, the extent of the floods was clear. While Palma's mayor headed off to inspect the full-to-overflowing reservoirs, mayors of municipalities with heavy agricultural dependence were assessing the damage along with government representatives. Crops in Sa Pobla (potatoes in particular) and Muro were among those at great risk. The government said it would look to provide a separate line of aid on top of anything that might be forthcoming from Madrid. The Wednesday front page suggested that Majorca could be declared a disaster area. As it was to turn out, it was a "severely affected zone". The wording didn't really matter, what did was the compensation. By Saturday, Madrid had confirmed that this will shortly be paid.

The cost of electricity
Water, or rather its absence because of a lack of rain, was one cause of electricity bills going up: the hydroelectric plants on the mainland had been deprived of a pretty vital source. The sun was another problem. There hadn't been enough to generate sufficient solar energy. French nuclear power stations, oil from Algeria, pure demand because of the cold weather; these were others. At the start of the week, bills were skyrocketing. Later in the week, households were bracing themselves for "mammoth" bills.

In fact, the additional cost was being put - on average - at between eight and ten euros. Percentages were quoted which made the increases sound that much more dramatic: at least 30% more, it was said early in the week. This went down to 20%, and by the weekend the price itself had gone down.

Water rates
A different bill, one for the water rate in Palma, was not going to be influenced by all the rain. The reservoirs were full, the aquifers were being supplied, but Neus Truyol, president of the Emaya municipal services agency, said that it would be "irresponsible" to not apply the rate increase to consumers with high use. Climate change experts say that drought will become more common, she noted, and insisted that 72% of consumers will be unaffected by the rise; as she has repeatedly stated since it was first announced last summer.

Allocating tourist tax revenue
The committee which decides how to spend the tourist tax revenue announced that almost half of the 30 million euros that were collected last year will go towards projects for the water cycle. There was general agreement that this will be a wise investment, with reader comments backing this up. But the allocation of revenue was by no means unanimous. Representatives of business, the town halls and even the environmentalists took issue. Loudest of all was Palma. It will not receive a cent of revenue for the projects the town hall had proposed, the combined value of which was not far short of the 14.8 million to be spent on water schemes. Mayor Hila and others believed that Palma should be specifically included in the distribution of revenue, as is the case with the four islands, and a figure of 50% of revenue was mentioned.

Public opposition to apartment rentals
With ministers concerning themselves with the floods and the crisis in parliament - which finally seemed to have resolved itself when the speaker, Xelo Huertas, was dismissed on Wednesday - the holiday rentals' issue fell off the agenda for the moment. However, a Gadeso survey of public opinion revealed strong opposition to apartments being rentals: only 23% were in favour. A majority of 59% believed that the greatest drawback lies with the difficulties created in access to housing for residents and workers.

Taxi drivers and resort buses
And the taxi drivers were stepping up their opposition to the tourist resort bus services from the airport. Representatives said that the government was lying by saying there was consensus among town halls with resorts that will get these services. Calvia insisted that it hadn't asked for them. Transport minister Marc Pons said that it was one of the town halls which had requested them. By the end of the week, Calvia - through its council meeting - formally registered its disquiet with the bus services' plan.