The agreement of the Board of Directors is based on the European Green Pact and is ahead of the modification of the new European Directive on wastewater.

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Balearic Water Agency

The Board of Directors of the Balearic Water Agency agreed on Thursday on the design criteria and objectives for new wastewater treatment projects. The review is being carried out within the current framework of European environmental policy, the 8th Multiannual Environment Action Programme, which will run until 2030.

The agreement is ahead of the revision of the European Urban Waste Water Directive, which is currently being processed and is based on the environmental and climate objectives of the European Green Pact, on which it is based, and establishes a facilitating framework to achieve six priority objectives. In this sense, the new sanitation and treatment projects to be drafted, as well as the operating contracts of the facilities managed by the Agency, will take into consideration the following objectives:

• In new facilities, priority must be given to reuse as a way of returning treated water to the environment and, if this is not possible, the creation and maintenance of wetlands will be encouraged so that, on the one hand, biodiversity is favoured and, on the other, the amount of underground resources available through indirect infiltration of regenerated water is increased.
• The necessary measures will be foreseen to enable the reuse of reclaimed water, particularly the installation of (urban) reclamation treatments and delivery points by trucks.
• Energy-neutral measures will be incorporated, such as cogeneration (biogas), photovoltaic installations, hydroelectric turbines where there is potential and any other viable technology.
• Measures will be included for using existing resources in treated water and sewage sludge, such as the extraction of nitrogen and phosphorus for off-site use or the generation of biogas or CO2 to achieve energy neutrality.
• There will be continuous sensitisation measures of the basic parameters of water input and output in the installations as well as the operation of the facilities.
• Measures will be taken to minimise the impact of torrential rains.

Unemployment in January stood at 35,554 people, the lowest figure in the entire historical series for the month of January in the Balearic Islands. This figure means that, compared to last year, unemployment has fallen by 18,881 people, a percentage drop of 34.7%.

This is the sharpest drop in Spain as a whole, which saw unemployment fall by 6.9% compared to a year ago.

Unemployment also fell from December in the Islands, the only region to record a decrease (0.8%, with 297 fewer unemployed). In Spain, unemployment increased by 2.5% overall compared to December.

The administrative unemployment rate for January in the Balearic Islands stands at 7.3%, below 10 points, and clearly below the national average (12.7%).