Why Mallorca's reservoirs remain empty despite rain — a reality check

Why Mallorca's reservoirs remain empty despite rain — a reality check

Key question: Is a little rain enough to pull Mallorca out of pre‑alarm drought — or do we need to think differently?

On 24 November the municipal utilities Emaya reported that the island's two most important reservoirs, Gorg Blau and Cúber, were each just under 30 percent. Anyone who walked along the Passeig Fabra in Palma yesterday afternoon heard a mixture of mopeds, market stalls and occasional horns — and yet conversations with vendors still carried concern: a few raindrops on rooftops are by no means the end of the dry season.

The sober figure, 'around 30 percent', says more than a reassuring TV image of puddles at the roadside. Reservoirs do not fill linearly: a lot of rain evaporates in the Serra de Tramuntana, a significant share runs off on the surface before it can be captured by the networks. Added to this is that some rain events fall in the north while the main consumers and supply pipelines are located elsewhere.

Critical analysis: We face three problem areas that are not visible in the numbers. First: loss and inefficiency in the distribution system. Old pipes in settlements around Marratxí or in parts of Calvià let water disappear along the way. Second: allocation priorities. Agricultural irrigation, hotels and households compete. Third: capacity and the concept of the infrastructure — reservoirs alone do not solve a structural water problem.

What is often missing in public discourse: an honest debate about demand management and ownership responsibility. People talk about rain and look at filling levels, but hardly anyone openly discusses who gets how much water, at what price and with what efficiency. The issue of groundwater and illegal wells is also rarely widely discussed — even though it noticeably lowers aquifer levels in some rural areas.

A daily-life scene: In Valldemossa early in the morning a female farmer stands next to her delivery van, her hands still dusty, and fills two canisters at the public tap. She says her olive grove has to be watered later and more sparingly this year. Next to her a tour bus is parked, tourists get off, photograph the narrow streets and of course have no eye for the contents of the canister. This small encounter illustrates the tension: tourism and everyday life use the same scarcity — but not at the same pace.

Concrete solutions needed now:

1) Reduce losses: Prioritise leak detection and replacement of old pipelines in urban networks. A drop lost in Palmanova or Son Gotleu is missing later in the reservoir.

2) Smart demand management: Time‑staggered tariffs and smart water meters that involve households and businesses more — not as punishment, but as a clear price mechanism for peak loads.

3) Greywater and rainwater use: Promote systems in hotels, commercial properties and households. Make rainwater retention basins mandatory in new buildings, use roofs and terraces as small storage.

4) Rethink agriculture: Change irrigation methods (drip instead of sprinkler), provide incentives for less water‑intensive crops on hard‑to‑access plots, concentrate watering times outside tourist peak hours.

5) Reuse and desalination: Expand treatment plants for reclaimed water to irrigate urban green spaces and industry. Couple desalination to clear ecological rules and renewable energy only.

6) Ecological measures: Reforestation in erosion areas, soil improvement on agricultural land to increase water uptake — this keeps rain in the ground longer instead of running off quickly into rivers and the sea.

What is missing politically and socially: clear priority lists for supply shortages, transparent data on water use and well extractions, and a participation format for municipalities. Trust is not built by headlines but by open figures and comprehensible measures.

Sharp conclusion: A few rainy days are welcome, but more is not automatically good enough. The 30 percent mark is a warning signal, not a comfort patch. Mallorca does not need romanticised hope for the next storm but a pragmatic bundle of technology, regulation and behaviour change — otherwise the reservoirs remain a picturesque backdrop with an empty balance sheet behind it.

Those who act now protect farmers as well as the taps in Palma. Those who only watch the weather risk seeing similar scenes next summer: buckets at public taps, talks of rationing and an island that becomes accustomed to water scarcity — and that is not what we want.