Prohens stresses the importance of water investment: “My commitment was to allocate up to 600 million euros this term of office, and today we can say that we are keeping our word”.

TDB keeps you informed. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

The 130.57 million euro Finalist Fund for the Water Cycle

During a visit to the desalination plant in the Bay of Palma, the President of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Margalida Prohens, accompanied by the Councillor for the Sea and the Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, and the Director General of Water Resources, Joan Calafat, announced the investment of 130.57 million euros from the Finalist Fund for the Water Cycle. This disbursement is part of a broader strategy of the government to reinforce sustainability and efficiency in the management of water resources in the archipelago.

“My commitment to the citizens, the commitment of our Government, was that we would provide all the necessary resources, that we wanted this to be the legislature of water, and that we would create a fund for investment. My commitment was to allocate up to 600 million euros this term of office, and today we can say that we are keeping our word”, stressed Prohens during her appearance.

This significant investment, financed by the sewage canon, funds from the tourist tax earmarked for the environment, the Insularity Factor and the Water Management Fund of the General State Budget, reflects the government’s commitment to more sustainable and efficient water management.

This plan contemplates an equitable distribution of resources among all the archipelago islands, with a planned investment for 2024 of 81 million for Mallorca, 18.5 million for Menorca, 25 million for Ibiza and 3.23 million for Formentera. According to Prohens, this investment effort is a crucial step towards fulfilling the government’s promise to dedicate up to 600 million euros to the water cycle throughout the legislature.

In addition, the President of the government stressed the need to tackle immediate environmental challenges, such as discharges into the sea and water losses in pipelines. “We could not continue with discharges into the sea, neither of sewage nor drinking water, and we cannot afford to lose any more water due to leaks in the pipes,” she stressed.

The Government has also planned an additional investment of 63 million euros for the maintenance and improvement of existing water infrastructures, bringing the total investment in the Water Cycle to 200 million euros by 2024.

The councillor for the Sea and the Water Cycle, Lafuente, highlighted during his speech “the importance of being pioneers in the integrated and sustainable management of the entire water cycle”. “One of the important challenges we face is to ensure that the water reaches the treatment plants with as little salt as possible, and in this we have to make a major effort, together with the island councils and town councils. In this way we will ensure that the water leaving the treatment plants can be reused”, he stressed.

Calafat, for his part, listed the challenges he has found at the head of the Directorate General for Water Resources: “In these months we have tried to create a sustainable management plan, a plan whose objectives and challenges are extremely important. We have to improve efficiency, guarantee resources, modernise our networks, and digitalise the whole system. The challenges are many, but we are here to meet them.