Water
Escalating water demand from tourism has led to depleted and polluted aquifers and an increasing dependency on desalination plants, which contaminate coastal waters with their by-product, and have caused energy consumption to soar. Urbanization has reduced rainwater recharge of aquifers and the abandonment of agriculture and loss of traditional land uses that has accompanied the rise in tourism, has meant a loss of water harvesting and a local culture of “water saving”. In the past, almost all houses in Ibiza had an excellent rainwater harvesting system in place. As these buildings have been developed and changed for tourism, these systems have often been transformed and lost.
Underground aquifers in certain areas of Ibiza reveal high concentrations of chloride ions, indicating contamination with seawater. This process of salination occurs when the aquifers are overused and the groundwater levels drop, causing coastal water to intrude. The unsustainable use of underground water resources has decreased in the last few years, due to a new-found dependence on desalination plants. However, these produce a multi – component and polluting effluent and require a large amount of freshwater and energy to function.
Most visitors or foreign residents are unaware of the water shortage on the island. The only official river in Ibiza, el Rio de Santa Eulalia, stopped flowing many years ago and the water table is precariously low. Water comes from either groundwater (of which only 15% is recharged by the rain), or from desalination plants. The three desalination plants (Eivissa, San Antonio and Santa Eularia) deliver almost half of the urban water consumption. Half of this water consumption is used for gardening.
We recommend the following water conservation tips for both residents of, and visitors to the island:
- Take shorter showers and shallower baths
- Report or fix dripping taps and water leaks
- Use grey-water in the garden
- If you own a property, harvest rainwater and recycle wastewater. Good places to help with the setting up of water harvesting and water recycling are Terra Vita and Ecodisseny
- Use water efficient irrigation systems for gardens, and plant indigenous plants or those that don’t require much water.
- Tell others about the need for water conservation on the island
