Water quality in Albufera is one of the chief concerns.

Water quality in Albufera is one of the chief concerns. | MDB

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterAlcudia14/12/2017 00:00
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Environmentalists GOB have once again been denouncing the deterioration of the Albufera Nature Park. In GOB's opinion, the park is not receiving the necessary attention from the regional government. It has therefore restated what it said a year ago, since when "the problems in Albufera have not changed".

In 2016, GOB produced a report which pointed to the poor quality of water in Albufera. It presented nineteen measures which needed to be adopted, but which appear not to have been. The environmentalists drew attention, as they are again, to the lack of personnel and of monitoring. There is just one environment agent who controls a protected area with 130,000 visitors a year, and this agent has other tasks as well.

The government's director-general for natural areas, Miquel Mir, says that efforts are being made to improve the situation, and he places the blame for issues in Albufera on "saturation" in the bay of Alcudia tourism zones as well as on intensive farming in Sa Pobla, the power station, and the Sa Pobla and Muro water/sewage treatment plants.

Mir adds that degradation that has taken place over three decades cannot suddenly be stopped, but he stresses the fact that projects have been started which will yield results in the medium to long term.

As to personnel, he points out that the environment ministry is about to take on forty more people. Without specifying how many, he says that some new recruits will be deployed at Albufera, while the single agent who is currently there will in future be exclusively tasked with control duties.