Mallorca town wants to ban swimming pools

I'm completely off grid, with a smallish pool, and water needs met entirely by rain catchment off the roof of a smallish (no extensions allowed) house, plus a little extra from sheds and terraces to an underground deposito. And yet, I manage perfectly, on <30 days of rain a year. The same could apply in any urban setting. In fact I view my pool as essential back-up storage and for fire prevention in an emergency. The issue isn't pools. It's how they are filled.

Charles Dalrymple-ChumleyI love simplicity. But many things aren't so simple, even if it seems like it should be. First, unless you're at the beach and have a good long hose, somebody has to collect the seawater and bring it to you. They generally aren't philanthropists. And there's precious little infrastructure for this. Ka-ching! Second, you may not be aware of it, but seawater contains much too much salt for a saltwater pool. The alarm lights would be flashing and the electrolytes would just shut down. So, that seawater has to be about 80% desalinated before putting it in your pool. And the equipment needed to convert that salt to chlorine isn't free. Starts around 1000€ just for the equipment. Installation is not simple or inexpensive. Once installed, saltwater pools have much lower maintenance than standard freshwater/chlorine pools, and to the uninformed, it all sounds easy, but seawater just isn't going to work. Not without some serious capital outlay in infrastructure and desalination.

Converting pools to use sea water is the solution. In a fresh water restricted area it makes no sense to waste precious water on pools and watering plants and grass.