Feeling The Heat: Eco-tax

It's been proving to be a hot August for tourism policy-makers. Biel Barceló, the minister for tourism, has been continuing his tour of the resorts this week, visiting Muro to hear about that town's tourism issues. It was an appropriate place to have gone. The vice-president of Playa de Muro's hoteliers federation is the same person who is the president of the Mallorcan hoteliers federation - Inma de Benito. It is a resort which is an interesting case study in the development of Mallorca's beach tourism. It grew later than others and was to escape some of the excesses. Environmental common sense prevailed when the scope of the City of Lakes of Alcúdia was scaled back. That ambitious project, as it had been conceived originally, would have devoured and reclaimed a great deal more of Albufera than was to eventually be the case.

Albufera with its symbolism for the natural environment, and Playa de Muro with its relative modernity and abundance of superior-grade hotels create the perfect context for much of what exercises the minds of policymakers. Tensions do arise, as with all-inclusive and with the golf course which is now highly unlikely to ever be built, but for the most part this is a resort which has a balance between the competing demands of tourism and environment and which has achieved this through a high level of quality - in terms both of hotels and tourist.

It is a resort also, however, which symbolises one serious problem for Mallorca and one to which far too little attention has been given. It is now attracting more because, as is also the case nearby in Alcúdia, the issues of water and sewage have assumed centre stage. These are issues where tourism, the environment, resources, services and infrastructure collide. In a nutshell, they are ones for which a tourist eco-tax might be designed. The provision of water itself is less of a concern (at present anyway), but the means of ensuring quality are of concern, as is also the ability of the existing sewage works - on the edge of Albufera - to cope with the strains of tourism in Playa de Muro and Can Picafort.

Sewage was at the top of the list of subjects for discussion when Barceló was in Muro. It also formed part of the discussion that Benito had the other day with the regional environment minister, Vicenç Vidal. Benito has been consistent in voicing her opposition to the eco-tax, but if the tax is to be introduced, then it has to be spent on what it is intended for. In her opinion, and she is surely right, it has to be directed at general environmental issues linked to tourism: things like water and sewage.

Benito is not so sure that this will happen, though. Indeed she has said that she fears that the tax will end up being swallowed up by the general tax revenue pot and spent on something else. She has referred to the charge on water - introduced by the last government, and one that received almost no publicity - which was earmarked for improvements to water sanitation and infrastructure. Has it been? She wasn't convinced.

MALLORCA TODAY - Puerto Alcúdia complaints about sewer floods

Residents in a part of Puerto Alcúdia have raised, not for the first time, the problem with drainage that can lead to inundation of homes with sewage and rainwater. The area affected is that near to where the canal leads into the sea. The town hall is asking for patience as it seeks a solution to a problem which has existed for years.

See more: Ultima Hora

Just Say No (Or Yes)

There are some busy fellows at the Balearic Government’s environment commission. Yes and no. They have pronounced. The yes refers to Pollensa, the no to Can Picafort.

The “no” first. There is a problem of water treatment and sewage in Can Picafort (and Playa de Muro). A projected new plant has to be delayed, says the commission, because it would have involved dumping into the bay of Alcúdia. Someone has discovered that a European directive does not allow this in an area of special interest, in this case the bay, the bay that contains the beaches of Alcúdia, Playa de Muro, Can Picafort, Son Serra etc.

Is it just me or might this not have been thought about, even without the aid of a European directive? If not, then might a quick gander at the provisions of European or any other diktat not have brought this up earlier? Is there not something slightly unwired in the environmental thought process that there can be a hue and cry over burying a finca under fairways and bunkers (in the same area) and yet it takes a previously overlooked Brussels decree to raise an obstacle to polluting a bay used by thousands of bathers? Whatever. The current situation, according to Santa Margalida’s mayor, is “very serious” (Santa Margalida is the municipality in which Can Picafort is situated). It can give rise to conditions that create a bad image. I think we know what he’s talking about. Sewage is one thing, water treatment is the other. Playa de Muro, you may recall, has a problem with nitrates in its water. It is the existing treatment plant that covers Playa de Muro. Keep buying the bottled water.

And now the “yes”. For many years, some rundown houses abutting the Plaça Mayor in Pollensa have been just that – rundown. They have been so because the owners didn’t want to convert them in a fashion that they were being told to, i.e. as dwellings or as art or craft studios. Now, the environment commission worthies have given the green light to these owners to do with them as they do want, which is to turn them into “businesses” or … restaurants. Ah yes, more restaurants. What was I saying? No doubt they will all look very nice and make the square prettier, but more restaurants? There again, more craft shops would have been overkill. Personally, I admire dereliction; it has a satisfying air of authenticity. But I am not an environment commissioner, and unlikely to be so either.


QUIZ
Yesterday – “Too Much Too Young”, The Special AKA (aka The Specials). Today’s title – ignoring the bracket, from which educational establishment does this come?

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