Maó water supply: Ciutadella refuses network route

Maó, Menorca, faces a water supply problem and high nitrate levels: a summer plan to bring drinking water from Ciutadella, also on Menorca, by tanker truck has failed. Balearic minister Juan Manuel Lafuente told parliament on Tuesday, 13 October, that Ciutadella council refused the alternative route through its drinking-water network.

Why the tankers could not collect water

The Balearic government had worked with Maó council on a plan to fill tankers at Ciutadella’s desalination plant and take the water to Maó. But there was no outlet for loading drinking water, Lafuente said. A contract for the outlet is now out to tender.

That left Ciutadella council’s drinking-water network as the only way to supply Maó, according to the minister. He said the council opposed using it.

What happens next

Independent MP Francisco Cardona raised local press reports that Maó council was drawing water from the Sa Roca well in Es Mercadal, Menorca. Lafuente said he knew nothing about it and that the council would need permission to draw water there.

Lafuente also criticised Maó council for not installing equipment to remove nitrates sooner. He said the Balearic government had asked Spain’s central government to fund a portable desalination plant. For the medium term, he pointed to a planned desalination plant in eastern Menorca; the contract to draw up the project has been awarded.

Topics: Environment · Politics

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com