It may have been forgotten that the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation successfully lodged an appeal for there to be judicial review of the tourist tax; it was some months ago that this was done, after all.
It was unclear what grounds the federation felt it had for demanding a review, in particular given the fact that it had done so in 2001 in respect of the old ecotax and failed. Well, these grounds are now clearer. They include what the federation maintains is "disguised discrimination" against tourists. By these they are referring to the fact that tourists who come to the Balearics pay a tax because of the impact they have on the environment. Residents of the Balearics, who also have to pay the tax, do not pay the tax for the same reason because they are already here.
The federation adds that there is further discrimination because under two per cent of overnight stays in accommodation are those of residents. The tax is therefore directed at the travelling tourist.
The argument, one has to think, seems a bit thin; doesn't a tourist tax presuppose a travelling tourist? But the hoteliers believe that this disguised discrimination is sufficient to have the tax scrapped because it goes against European rules. The federation also takes the environmental angle in arguing that the tax discriminates against accommodation by not being applied to non-hotel tourist activities, such as restaurants. Moreover, the method of estimation for its payment places the burden not on tourists but on the accommodation, e.g. hotels.
The federation's case is, it has to be said, pretty complex, and it has provoked the scorn of Alberto Jarabo of Podemos. Earlier this week he described the hoteliers' appeal as being a "moral perversion" and one advanced by "fraudsters" without legitimacy to take a "legitimate and democratic government" to court.
While this legal row has been going on, the town halls have been following up on their displeasure at having been excluded from the distribution of tourist tax revenue. Their association, Felib, is concerned that future distributions won't be much better. It wants yet another committee to be formed in order to clarify what the town halls can expect in future. It is looking for some form of fixed percentage of revenue and has criticised the way in which priorities for spending the revenue raised last year were shifted.
Which is true, but then the government did say that it would be prioritising water projects that weren't specifically included in its list of "purposes" for the way in which the revenue would be spent. The first twelve million euros of the thirty million total revenue raised last year have been transferred to the government's water agency for seven projects.
Showing posts with label Water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Water. Show all posts
Saturday, March 04, 2017
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
The Environmental Crisis Coming Our Way
"The Guardian" joined the Mallorca overcrowding bandwagon at the weekend. Apart from a factual error - the date of the introduction of the tourist tax - and certain points that needed qualifying, such as all those cruise ship passengers supposedly inundating Palma on one day, it was reasonable enough. Being "The Guardian", an environmentalist was sounded out. A GOB spokesperson, Gerard Hau, said that this will be a "crisis" year, "a crazy year, the infrastructure will not cope".
You would expect GOB to say this, but are forecasts of some touristic Armageddon just environmentalist hot air? We will only know once high summer arrives, but the current prognosis goes something like this: airport stretched beyond its limit; Palma crowded out by ships and passengers; roads chockful of hire cars; ever more thousands of apartments being rented out; the hotels full; limits needing to be placed on the numbers on unspoiled beaches; supermarket supplies questionable; water supplies threatened; outdated sewage-treatment plants incapable of taking the pressure. Too many planes, too many ships, too many cars, too many people.
It should be a bonanza, but the anxieties and fears seem to outweigh the joy and the benefits. Mallorca, safe haven destination, reaping the rewards of others' hardships: all systems go, until the dam bursts and the haven is flooded by a tsunami of human pressure.
To take a specific. Water. The geographer Dr. Ivan Murray from the University of the Balearic Islands, one of Mallorca's most often quoted experts on the impact of tourism, said the other day that while a resident might consume 125 litres per day, a tourist will get through 440. One might query how he gets to these figures, but he is not the first one to point to the vast difference in terms of water usage. With Mallorca having endured a dry autumn and winter, we all know that water supplies are not as they should be. Thank Heaven that there was the foresight to build the Andratx and Alcudia desalination plants, barely used until now.
But desalinated water costs more than the water supplied from aquifers and reservoirs, and this water - from whatever source - goes for example, as Gerard Hau observed, towards the swimming pools and gardens of residential tourists. These aren't only foreigners. There are plenty of Mallorcan-owned second holiday homes.
Hau, it might seem strange, suggested that it is better to have "drinking ghettoes" such as Magalluf rather than have "intellectual types who tramp over everything in their search for the untouched bit, the original Mallorcan". Strange but not wholly wrong. There is a name for it. The Benidorm Effect. Pack tourism densely into specific areas, introduce sound environmental efficiency controls, and the overall cost and damage to the environment and resources are reduced.
Inefficiency is increased by having high dispersal of tourism, and there is ever greater dispersal in Mallorca, partly aided by legislation. The last government made easier the creation of rural tourism accommodation, one needing water and other services and so adding to inefficiency. It seemed minded to also permit developments such as polo fields. These might seem benign, but not when the supplies of water have to be factored in. Likewise with golf courses. Murray reckons that the 440 litres per day doubles if a tourist plays golf. His calculation is obviously not solely on direct personal consumption but the volume of water required to permit this type of tourism activity.
There again, if tourism is a vital industry, which it is, is this water usage any more detrimental than the vast amounts needed for agriculture? Tourism's contribution to island GDP is massively greater than that of agriculture, but then agriculture, with its huge appetite for land (and so therefore water), is equally vital. Citing GDP figures gets one only so far when produce, livestock, landscape, rural communities and employment need to be taken into account.
Water is just one example but it is a fundamental one. The lack of rainfall has sharpened minds, as have all the forecasts regarding numbers, be they for people or means of transport. But what, other than drafting drought plans, has the government been doing to prevent this being a "crisis" year? What actually can it do? Biel Barceló, the tourism minister, talks on the one hand of it being impractical to put a cap on numbers - preferring instead that the load is spread and therefore assists with tackling seasonality - but he also implies a cap. If there are finite numbers for hotels, so there should be for other accommodation.
Yet for all this, can anyone say what the cut-off point should be? Does anyone know for certain what this might be? Is talk of "crisis" correct or is it just environmentalist propaganda? We may be about to find out. But if systems start collapsing, don't blame the tourists. Forward planning had required more than a couple of desalination plants.
* http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/14/gridlock-tourists-terrorism-spain-balearics
You would expect GOB to say this, but are forecasts of some touristic Armageddon just environmentalist hot air? We will only know once high summer arrives, but the current prognosis goes something like this: airport stretched beyond its limit; Palma crowded out by ships and passengers; roads chockful of hire cars; ever more thousands of apartments being rented out; the hotels full; limits needing to be placed on the numbers on unspoiled beaches; supermarket supplies questionable; water supplies threatened; outdated sewage-treatment plants incapable of taking the pressure. Too many planes, too many ships, too many cars, too many people.
It should be a bonanza, but the anxieties and fears seem to outweigh the joy and the benefits. Mallorca, safe haven destination, reaping the rewards of others' hardships: all systems go, until the dam bursts and the haven is flooded by a tsunami of human pressure.
To take a specific. Water. The geographer Dr. Ivan Murray from the University of the Balearic Islands, one of Mallorca's most often quoted experts on the impact of tourism, said the other day that while a resident might consume 125 litres per day, a tourist will get through 440. One might query how he gets to these figures, but he is not the first one to point to the vast difference in terms of water usage. With Mallorca having endured a dry autumn and winter, we all know that water supplies are not as they should be. Thank Heaven that there was the foresight to build the Andratx and Alcudia desalination plants, barely used until now.
But desalinated water costs more than the water supplied from aquifers and reservoirs, and this water - from whatever source - goes for example, as Gerard Hau observed, towards the swimming pools and gardens of residential tourists. These aren't only foreigners. There are plenty of Mallorcan-owned second holiday homes.
Hau, it might seem strange, suggested that it is better to have "drinking ghettoes" such as Magalluf rather than have "intellectual types who tramp over everything in their search for the untouched bit, the original Mallorcan". Strange but not wholly wrong. There is a name for it. The Benidorm Effect. Pack tourism densely into specific areas, introduce sound environmental efficiency controls, and the overall cost and damage to the environment and resources are reduced.
Inefficiency is increased by having high dispersal of tourism, and there is ever greater dispersal in Mallorca, partly aided by legislation. The last government made easier the creation of rural tourism accommodation, one needing water and other services and so adding to inefficiency. It seemed minded to also permit developments such as polo fields. These might seem benign, but not when the supplies of water have to be factored in. Likewise with golf courses. Murray reckons that the 440 litres per day doubles if a tourist plays golf. His calculation is obviously not solely on direct personal consumption but the volume of water required to permit this type of tourism activity.
There again, if tourism is a vital industry, which it is, is this water usage any more detrimental than the vast amounts needed for agriculture? Tourism's contribution to island GDP is massively greater than that of agriculture, but then agriculture, with its huge appetite for land (and so therefore water), is equally vital. Citing GDP figures gets one only so far when produce, livestock, landscape, rural communities and employment need to be taken into account.
Water is just one example but it is a fundamental one. The lack of rainfall has sharpened minds, as have all the forecasts regarding numbers, be they for people or means of transport. But what, other than drafting drought plans, has the government been doing to prevent this being a "crisis" year? What actually can it do? Biel Barceló, the tourism minister, talks on the one hand of it being impractical to put a cap on numbers - preferring instead that the load is spread and therefore assists with tackling seasonality - but he also implies a cap. If there are finite numbers for hotels, so there should be for other accommodation.
Yet for all this, can anyone say what the cut-off point should be? Does anyone know for certain what this might be? Is talk of "crisis" correct or is it just environmentalist propaganda? We may be about to find out. But if systems start collapsing, don't blame the tourists. Forward planning had required more than a couple of desalination plants.
* http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/14/gridlock-tourists-terrorism-spain-balearics
Friday, March 11, 2016
Don't Mess With The Germans
History can never repeat itself exactly. Certain and basic circumstances may be similar but there are new ones to throw into the contemporary mix. These do not, however, disguise the potential for repetition that stems from the basic elements.
Let's start with the history and the story of the old eco-tax. There is, as I explained in an article last July, some selective memory regarding its impact. The facts were that prior to its introduction in May 2002, there had been a drop in tourism numbers the previous year. In its first year of implementation, there was a far greater drop: the percentage was 7.6% down. In 2003, the second and final year of the tax, tourism numbers grew again, so much so that the losses of 2002 were all but made up: the percentage growth was 6.6%.
What is conveniently overlooked when considering the eco-tax is the fact that the German economy was experiencing a period of downturn and then upturn. The overwhelming bulk of tourists who went awol in 2002 were German. While the eco-tax was partly to blame for the 2002 decline, it wasn't the only factor. Economic circumstances were at play, as was the lousy public relations that had emanated from Mallorca and which had led to an impression in Germany that certain elements of its tourism market were not welcome on the island. This lousy PR was to be rectified with a charm offensive.
The German and British markets are equally important to Mallorca, but the German association with Mallorca is stronger than Britain's, which has created a far deeper interest in Mallorcan affairs than is the case in Britain. And so we come to the present day and the potential for history to repeat itself.
London's World Travel Market was held in November. At the time the tourist tax was a glint in the eye of a politician on a distant horizon. Now, at Berlin's ITB fair, the tax is being brought to shore, soon to disembark. The proximity of its introduction is thus drawing sharper attention but it is not all that is drawing attention.
There are parts of Mallorca which are and always will be German. Playa de Palma, Arenal in particular, is one such part. By no means all Germans are drawn to it. There are many who despair of the behaviour of some of their fellow countrypeople who go there. As two twenty-year-olds, staying in Playa de Muro, once said to me in disparaging tones, having gone and taken a look for themselves. "There are many drunken tourists in Arenal."
Critical or not, the crackdown on behaviour is causing a rumbling not wholly dissimilar to that which occurred at the start of the century. The message, misinterpreted though it might be by some, has echoes of the one which had suggested Germans were not welcome. It also has echoes of what has occurred in Magalluf with the British market, but in Arenal there is one very important difference. It is a territorial one, centred primarily on Balneario 6 - the "Ballermann" - and the beach. This is German land and it is under attack by the Palma moves to stamp out street and beach drinking.
There are other issues. One is the concern with a shortage of water. Another is sewage. Issues such as this receive greater attention in Germany than they would do in Britain, which is the consequence of that deeper interest in Mallorcan affairs and corresponding coverage given to them by the German media. On the opposite side of the island from Playa de Palma, there is the matter of the sewage plant that serves resorts very popular with the German market - Playa de Muro and Can Picafort. Last year there were numerous complaints about bad odours, while there was also some alarm at what appeared as though it might have been sewage discharge close to the shore.
In Berlin, it is understood, tour operators and leading Mallorcan hoteliers have been wanting words with the regional government representatives about this. Biel Barceló, President Armengol, the environment minister, Vicenç Vidal, have all been quizzed, and the interrogators have included leading executives from Iberostar, which has several hotels in the Muro-Can Picafort zone.
But it is the tourist tax, above all, that is under scrutiny in Berlin. If the government got away with too much negativity regarding the tax in London, it can't avoid it in Berlin. The German association of tour operators and travel agents, DRV, sent a strongly worded letter to the government a month ago, expressing its concerns with the tax. ABTA had done so as well, but the German message was fiercer.
History doesn't repeat itself precisely, but it can conspire to bring similar circumstances together. The government can take solace in the Hobson's choice for tourists created by problems elsewhere. But for how long? The Germans are not happy.
Let's start with the history and the story of the old eco-tax. There is, as I explained in an article last July, some selective memory regarding its impact. The facts were that prior to its introduction in May 2002, there had been a drop in tourism numbers the previous year. In its first year of implementation, there was a far greater drop: the percentage was 7.6% down. In 2003, the second and final year of the tax, tourism numbers grew again, so much so that the losses of 2002 were all but made up: the percentage growth was 6.6%.
What is conveniently overlooked when considering the eco-tax is the fact that the German economy was experiencing a period of downturn and then upturn. The overwhelming bulk of tourists who went awol in 2002 were German. While the eco-tax was partly to blame for the 2002 decline, it wasn't the only factor. Economic circumstances were at play, as was the lousy public relations that had emanated from Mallorca and which had led to an impression in Germany that certain elements of its tourism market were not welcome on the island. This lousy PR was to be rectified with a charm offensive.
The German and British markets are equally important to Mallorca, but the German association with Mallorca is stronger than Britain's, which has created a far deeper interest in Mallorcan affairs than is the case in Britain. And so we come to the present day and the potential for history to repeat itself.
London's World Travel Market was held in November. At the time the tourist tax was a glint in the eye of a politician on a distant horizon. Now, at Berlin's ITB fair, the tax is being brought to shore, soon to disembark. The proximity of its introduction is thus drawing sharper attention but it is not all that is drawing attention.
There are parts of Mallorca which are and always will be German. Playa de Palma, Arenal in particular, is one such part. By no means all Germans are drawn to it. There are many who despair of the behaviour of some of their fellow countrypeople who go there. As two twenty-year-olds, staying in Playa de Muro, once said to me in disparaging tones, having gone and taken a look for themselves. "There are many drunken tourists in Arenal."
Critical or not, the crackdown on behaviour is causing a rumbling not wholly dissimilar to that which occurred at the start of the century. The message, misinterpreted though it might be by some, has echoes of the one which had suggested Germans were not welcome. It also has echoes of what has occurred in Magalluf with the British market, but in Arenal there is one very important difference. It is a territorial one, centred primarily on Balneario 6 - the "Ballermann" - and the beach. This is German land and it is under attack by the Palma moves to stamp out street and beach drinking.
There are other issues. One is the concern with a shortage of water. Another is sewage. Issues such as this receive greater attention in Germany than they would do in Britain, which is the consequence of that deeper interest in Mallorcan affairs and corresponding coverage given to them by the German media. On the opposite side of the island from Playa de Palma, there is the matter of the sewage plant that serves resorts very popular with the German market - Playa de Muro and Can Picafort. Last year there were numerous complaints about bad odours, while there was also some alarm at what appeared as though it might have been sewage discharge close to the shore.
In Berlin, it is understood, tour operators and leading Mallorcan hoteliers have been wanting words with the regional government representatives about this. Biel Barceló, President Armengol, the environment minister, Vicenç Vidal, have all been quizzed, and the interrogators have included leading executives from Iberostar, which has several hotels in the Muro-Can Picafort zone.
But it is the tourist tax, above all, that is under scrutiny in Berlin. If the government got away with too much negativity regarding the tax in London, it can't avoid it in Berlin. The German association of tour operators and travel agents, DRV, sent a strongly worded letter to the government a month ago, expressing its concerns with the tax. ABTA had done so as well, but the German message was fiercer.
History doesn't repeat itself precisely, but it can conspire to bring similar circumstances together. The government can take solace in the Hobson's choice for tourists created by problems elsewhere. But for how long? The Germans are not happy.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Water And Tourism Overcrowding
If the Balearic government had said that they were introducing a tax for tourists that would go directly on paying for water, would there be the same hue and cry as there currently is (and still to be) with the tourist tax? Maybe there would be, but the message would be an awful lot simpler. Water is a precious resource and it might just be getting scarcer. Thank you, tourist, for coming to Mallorca, but could you help us with getting you showered and ridding you of the sand that has stuck to suntan lotion and the salt that has encrusted your body and hair? Is it too much to ask for such a precious resource?
A water tax would satisfy Biel Barceló's "finalista" usage, though just one specific purpose and not a host of purposes (vague in their definition). No, there wouldn't be a tax for those purposes, but have a water tax and revenue is freed up elsewhere to be spent on agroforestry modernisation and whatever else.
Palma's Antoni Noguera, a councillor (nay, deputy mayor and due to become mayor in 2017) for whom the words sustainable and model are obliged to feature in every single utterance, may well actually have a point. Are over 3,500 new hotel places in Playa de Palma consistent with a model of sustainable tourism? Did anyone, as he has suggested, stop to ask what impact this increase in places and so humanity would have on services? They're sticking some of these 3,500 plus places on top of existing hotels. Common sense demands that a bottom-up approach is taken instead. Can the bottom, water pipes for instance, sustain the top?
It could all be, of course, one of those things - the current lack of water. Or maybe it will prove not to be. The desalination plants are finally going to really come into their own, and someone has to pay for their output. Palma is preparing almost six million euros for desalinated water this year. A tourist water tax, anyone? And if Palma continues to succeed in making itself Europe's all-year destination darling, water becomes ever more of an issue, especially if rain were to remain as limited in its supply as at present. Mallorca, the tourist industry, would not bemoan the absence of a paddle. The creek wouldn't require one.
This all said, the Noguera criticism of these additional hotel places needs to be seen in the context of how the hotel industry has evolved over the past generation. Inma de Benito, the president of the hoteliers' federation, is never slow in bringing forward a killer statistic or several, and so here is one. Since 1989, the increase in the number of hotel places in the whole of Balearics has been in the order of 3%.
This figure can be questioned, and so I will question it. A key report that the Mallorca Chamber of Commerce published in 2003 showed that from 1991 to 2001 the number of hotel places had risen by 11% to 226,000. However, there had also been a 10% drop in the number of places in hotels with some of apartment classification. The overall rise in places, taking these different categories into account, was more like 4%. Since 2001, there has been comparatively little building activity, but the increase in number of places has not been as limited as the federation might like us to believe: there are 3,700 in Playa de Palma that will require an adjustment of the Benito percentage.
Still, the point that Benito is making is that hotel expansion has not been of anything like the same order as that for residential tourism - villas and other accommodation. Its legitimate growth over the same period since 1989 has been 28%. To this can be added all the properties which are not regulated.
Government and hoteliers, Barceló and Benito, are on much the same hymn sheet when it comes to this regulation. Where they principally differ is on the consequences. For Barceló it is one of overcrowding, as much if not more than being unregulated. But this difference in emphasis is important in the argument over resources. Yes, the additional places in Playa de Palma require a response from services, but nothing like to the same degree as the consumption of water from all the additional private accommodation that has been made available.
The thing is that you, as a politician, can choose your targets to suit your cause. Noguera is right, but he's not right. His is the hotel demonisation argument, but the hoteliers are far from being the only devils in the battle for water.
A water tax would satisfy Biel Barceló's "finalista" usage, though just one specific purpose and not a host of purposes (vague in their definition). No, there wouldn't be a tax for those purposes, but have a water tax and revenue is freed up elsewhere to be spent on agroforestry modernisation and whatever else.
Palma's Antoni Noguera, a councillor (nay, deputy mayor and due to become mayor in 2017) for whom the words sustainable and model are obliged to feature in every single utterance, may well actually have a point. Are over 3,500 new hotel places in Playa de Palma consistent with a model of sustainable tourism? Did anyone, as he has suggested, stop to ask what impact this increase in places and so humanity would have on services? They're sticking some of these 3,500 plus places on top of existing hotels. Common sense demands that a bottom-up approach is taken instead. Can the bottom, water pipes for instance, sustain the top?
It could all be, of course, one of those things - the current lack of water. Or maybe it will prove not to be. The desalination plants are finally going to really come into their own, and someone has to pay for their output. Palma is preparing almost six million euros for desalinated water this year. A tourist water tax, anyone? And if Palma continues to succeed in making itself Europe's all-year destination darling, water becomes ever more of an issue, especially if rain were to remain as limited in its supply as at present. Mallorca, the tourist industry, would not bemoan the absence of a paddle. The creek wouldn't require one.
This all said, the Noguera criticism of these additional hotel places needs to be seen in the context of how the hotel industry has evolved over the past generation. Inma de Benito, the president of the hoteliers' federation, is never slow in bringing forward a killer statistic or several, and so here is one. Since 1989, the increase in the number of hotel places in the whole of Balearics has been in the order of 3%.
This figure can be questioned, and so I will question it. A key report that the Mallorca Chamber of Commerce published in 2003 showed that from 1991 to 2001 the number of hotel places had risen by 11% to 226,000. However, there had also been a 10% drop in the number of places in hotels with some of apartment classification. The overall rise in places, taking these different categories into account, was more like 4%. Since 2001, there has been comparatively little building activity, but the increase in number of places has not been as limited as the federation might like us to believe: there are 3,700 in Playa de Palma that will require an adjustment of the Benito percentage.
Still, the point that Benito is making is that hotel expansion has not been of anything like the same order as that for residential tourism - villas and other accommodation. Its legitimate growth over the same period since 1989 has been 28%. To this can be added all the properties which are not regulated.
Government and hoteliers, Barceló and Benito, are on much the same hymn sheet when it comes to this regulation. Where they principally differ is on the consequences. For Barceló it is one of overcrowding, as much if not more than being unregulated. But this difference in emphasis is important in the argument over resources. Yes, the additional places in Playa de Palma require a response from services, but nothing like to the same degree as the consumption of water from all the additional private accommodation that has been made available.
The thing is that you, as a politician, can choose your targets to suit your cause. Noguera is right, but he's not right. His is the hotel demonisation argument, but the hoteliers are far from being the only devils in the battle for water.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
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.
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.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Lightning strike leaves Sa Pobla without water
An odd victim of bad weather. The storm of Tuesday (14 February) afternoon led to a lightning strike on Sa Pobla's water plant, knocking out two pumping engines and leaving the town without drinking water supply for some 17 hours.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa concerns over water and transport
Biel Company, who heads the Balearics mega-ministry of environment, agriculture and land, has met with Pollensa mayor Tomeu Cifre who expressed a wish that the cost of water from the Alcúdia desalination plant, on which Pollensa is partially reliant (it is the only municipality to draw water from the plant) should be reduced and that summer bus schedules should not be cut owing to tourism demand.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Drowning Man
These are watery times, and so it must be the rain that has broken what seems to have been many weeks of dry weather but was probably nothing of the sort, just perhaps a fortnight at best, or perhaps it's the finally reopened Puerto Pollensa pool and the open doors policy at the weekend which meant you could go for free, but you wondered should it not have been an open waters policy instead or is it the case that their waters had broken or something like that or nothing, or was it all down to FUSOSA and their regular cuts to supply, and do you want to know something, the bloke actually rang back to ask if the supply had been restored, which was good of him, in fact it is unheard of, except you have now heard it, or then could it be the new desalination plant for drinking water that will serve Alcúdia and Pollensa from the coming summer and mean that supplies in certain parts, Cala San Vicente for instance, will have better quality than the cloudy, puffy stuff they've had to contend with till now, and I remember those little fluffy clouds, and also mean fewer nitrates and that "inhabitants wlll be able to drink tap water", in the words of Alcúdia's mayor Miquel Ferrer, albeit that he didn't speak them in English of course, and should also mean that those responsible for getting Alcúdia and Pollensa's water sorted out have a word with the people at the plant in Can Picafort that supplies that town and Playa de Muro where there are too many nitrates, or there again perhaps it's the news that all the marinas on the island are expected to be full to overflowing this summer, if - that is - boats and yachts can ever be said to overflow, which you would rather hope that they wouldn't I guess but would more likely be said to be buoyant in the water and in their number and in therefore the market for nautical tourism and raise again the question as to whether there should be more moorings and how much they should cost and what the effects might be on the environment, marine in particular, and also on the whole social dynamic of tourism in that an affluent, water-based elite assumes supremacy over the all-inclusive economy-class who might stretch as far as a pedalo but no more, and brings into sharp relief this notion of water-sports centres, the Estaciones Náuticas, that will be Alcúdia and could be Pollensa and whether they create second-class zones around, for example, The Mile, while the port and the marina is reserved for what some love to call "quality tourism" and yet is an affront to many, or perhaps it's all just a case of drowning under the weight of too many words in too long a sentence that has all to do with water because these, as I say, are watery times, and so it must be the rain, and those little fluffy clouds, or is it that everything comes in, flows in, lungs imploding, just like one long, unbroken, never-ending sentence, like a drowning man gulping for air, gulping for help in these watery times, which is how it feels, perhaps for you as well, and so it must be the rain that has broken what seems to have been many weeks of dry weather ...
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Duran Duran. From the same album, "Ordinary World" was better, so here it is, in fact it was bloody great (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaTL6VAr2RY). Today's title - it's them yet again, but this comes from a long time ago when it was decreed that all Irish bands had to feature a violin.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Duran Duran. From the same album, "Ordinary World" was better, so here it is, in fact it was bloody great (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaTL6VAr2RY). Today's title - it's them yet again, but this comes from a long time ago when it was decreed that all Irish bands had to feature a violin.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, January 26, 2008
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?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
More on the projected railway to Alcúdia. The Balearic Government seems not - as yet - to have acted on my suggestion to co-opt Sirs Branson and Savile (18 July: How’s About That Then?), but nevertheless it’s full steam ahead. Or should that be full electric ahead? Truth is it’s neither. Though the train project is one of the “big things” of the new government, it is highly questionable whether anything will be done within the lifetime of this government. Studies are being talked about; there is a problem in that plans for the island never envisaged this form of rail development; urbanisations and industrial estates have been put up as artifical barriers.
Thinking about any extension from Sa Pobla, the only route that comes to my mind would be one that circles Sa Pobla, and then follows the road to the Pollensa roundabout and then the new road to Alcúdia. Where it would go then, I’m not sure, but perhaps it could cut across and end up somewhere near the Auditorium. But not without a lot of difficulty. As the Ultima Hora points out, any project is not a “camino de rosas”. Maybe it could carry on alongside the road to the Horse roundabout with a terminal there.
There again, I’m not a civil engineer, so what the heck do I know. Anyway, in addition to the train, there is some idea of there being a linked tram service to the port, which could then also go onto Playa de Muro and Can Picafort. And where, pray, would that go? Still, it’s all very interesting but chances of it happening must be remote.
An extra issue is that it can take forever to get agreement. The Alcúdia industrial park was fifteen years in the offing, so has been the plan to upgrade La Gola in Pollensa to a form of inland marine park. That now finally has the green light, but much of the delay for projects here stems from the regular shifts of government, locally and nationally. So, as for the railway, don’t hold your breath as you may be waiting a long time for a train.
And while on water in Pollensa, there is meant to be a crackdown on excessive domestic use of water. Pollensa does have problems with water, though I wonder whether owners of lush gardens will feel inclined to turn the hoses and sprinklers off.
Yesterday’s Guardia presence on Playa de Muro may have had more to do with a drowning, I’m sorry to have to say.
Better news. The annual Alcúdia Jazz festival is about to get under way (look for info on the WHAT’S ON BLOG). The first gig is on 31 August at the Biblioteca Can Torró with the singer Esther Bosch and the Tià Cardell Group who offer a form of jazz with pop-rock crossover. Not as international as the Sa Pobla Jazz Festival, the programme this year does though include the Boston-based Human Feel who will play the last gig on 29 September. Another act is Pedro Iturralde, one of the prime movers of jazz flamenco. For those who think flamenco can be either ultra-miserable or a lot of fast guitars, clapping, and stamping of feet, the jazz version is far more interesting and often more melodic.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Hedgehoppers Anonymous. Water sprinklers, jazz, it must be today’s title. The album was not by a jazz artist, but it had strong jazz overtones with The Crusaders being featured. Who was it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thinking about any extension from Sa Pobla, the only route that comes to my mind would be one that circles Sa Pobla, and then follows the road to the Pollensa roundabout and then the new road to Alcúdia. Where it would go then, I’m not sure, but perhaps it could cut across and end up somewhere near the Auditorium. But not without a lot of difficulty. As the Ultima Hora points out, any project is not a “camino de rosas”. Maybe it could carry on alongside the road to the Horse roundabout with a terminal there.
There again, I’m not a civil engineer, so what the heck do I know. Anyway, in addition to the train, there is some idea of there being a linked tram service to the port, which could then also go onto Playa de Muro and Can Picafort. And where, pray, would that go? Still, it’s all very interesting but chances of it happening must be remote.
An extra issue is that it can take forever to get agreement. The Alcúdia industrial park was fifteen years in the offing, so has been the plan to upgrade La Gola in Pollensa to a form of inland marine park. That now finally has the green light, but much of the delay for projects here stems from the regular shifts of government, locally and nationally. So, as for the railway, don’t hold your breath as you may be waiting a long time for a train.
And while on water in Pollensa, there is meant to be a crackdown on excessive domestic use of water. Pollensa does have problems with water, though I wonder whether owners of lush gardens will feel inclined to turn the hoses and sprinklers off.
Yesterday’s Guardia presence on Playa de Muro may have had more to do with a drowning, I’m sorry to have to say.
Better news. The annual Alcúdia Jazz festival is about to get under way (look for info on the WHAT’S ON BLOG). The first gig is on 31 August at the Biblioteca Can Torró with the singer Esther Bosch and the Tià Cardell Group who offer a form of jazz with pop-rock crossover. Not as international as the Sa Pobla Jazz Festival, the programme this year does though include the Boston-based Human Feel who will play the last gig on 29 September. Another act is Pedro Iturralde, one of the prime movers of jazz flamenco. For those who think flamenco can be either ultra-miserable or a lot of fast guitars, clapping, and stamping of feet, the jazz version is far more interesting and often more melodic.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Hedgehoppers Anonymous. Water sprinklers, jazz, it must be today’s title. The album was not by a jazz artist, but it had strong jazz overtones with The Crusaders being featured. Who was it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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