Authorities in Mallorca like nothing more than being able to announce the existence of a “common front” for tackling whatever the latest issue or crisis might happen to be. The common front implies that all entities/individuals relevant to said issue/crisis are on board. The common front duly unveiled, and the public – again this is implied – can anticipate measures that will do the tackling.
But when will the measures be adopted? There’s a question. And there are few matters that have required measures of a common-front variety more than the state of Pollensa Bay. Not the whole of the bay, just that part where the water laps the Puerto Pollensa shoreline and stretches out in the general direction of the La Fortalesa site for film locations and celebrity weddings.
The requirement has been such – is such – that there is a common front. It was announced at a meeting at the yacht club last week. Making common cause were Pollensa Town Hall, the Balearic Government’s ministry for the sea and the water cycle (and both the sea and the water cycle are relevant in respect of this cause), the yacht club itself, the local hoteliers, the fishermen, the association for the defence of the bay and the Arrels Marines environmental group.
An impressive array who gathered towards the end of a season once more marred by matters of a ‘mar’ type. We can perhaps set all the business to do with the sunloungers to one side, as these in themselves, once they eventually appear, have nothing to do with contamination. What we can’t ignore is the fact that the red flags were again flying. This is where the sea meets the water cycle and depends greatly on how efficiently the water (of a less than pleasant nature) has been cycled. Or not.
The sea and water cycle minister, Juan Manuel Lafuente, boldly announced that there is to be a comprehensive management plan for the bay. Comprehensive? He explained that his ministry’s “commitment is to establish a roadmap, coordinated with the town hall, for organising and ensuring that nautical activities are pursued in a sustainable fashion”. He was talking about the sea. Where was the water cycle? It was there insofar as discussion moved on to the sewage network and to the great concerns that everyone has about faecal spills. A common front, if you like. But apart from some town hall assurances about pumping systems and sewage cleaning, the comprehensive plan – or so it seemed – didn’t specifically have a commitment to organising the drains.
You can’t have one without the other, as nautical activities and faecal contamination have combined in the degeneration of the bay. Arrels Marines know the nautical impact better than anyone, as it was they who produced a report in March 2022 which warned that the bay was at its limit of ecological load. The town hall had asked the group to undertake a study. They did and concluded that parts of the seabed were “dead zones”. There was all manner of bulky waste littering the seabed, such as tyres filed with concrete to anchor boats – illegally anchored boats.
Another finding was that quarry sand for Puerto Pollensa’s manmade beach had affected the seabed. There were areas of “mud” unlikely to recover on their own in the short term. Posidonia sea grass meadows had been uprooted, and regardless of the success with posidonia replanting, it is the case that more needs to be done in order to bring about recovery.
In June 2022, the town hall presented what it described as a “comprehensive” report into the condition of the bay. This stemmed from the Arrels Marines study and the work of the IMEDEA Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies. It had been commissioned to come up with a report, one clear aspect of which was the impact of contamination from untreated wastewater. In fact, when IMEDEA became involved, the then mayor, Tomeu Cifre, said that the institute would assist in presenting proposals for EU funds to sort out the sewage network.
So, IMEDEA, who with Red Eléctrica are engaged in the posidonia renewal project, had to all intents and purposes come up with a comprehensive plan, always taking account of the fact that the now defunct Junts Avançam coalition had previously presented a “comprehensive” plan for the overhaul of the sewage and drainage system. This was in October 2020. The plan was approved at a council meeting but with the abstention of Cifre’s Tots party and the Unio Mollera Pollencina, who at that time ran the town hall. They had no intention of actually carrying it out. Subsequently, Junts were regularly critical of a failure to follow the plan.
We should go to September 2021, as it was then that a “common front” was announced. Town hall, government, Costas Authority, environmentalists, hoteliers, etc. all met to consider the impact on the bay of illegal anchoring. And of uncontrolled discharges into the sea. Note the emphasis, because the common front of three years ago was stressing the two issues on a equal basis. Not one over the other. The town hall had in fact been stung by analyses of samples collected by the association for the defence of Puerto Pollensa which revealed unacceptably high levels of contamination.
Even though the town hall disputed the legitimacy of the sampling, it obviously had to do something. The 2021 common front was declared and IMEDEA was commissioned. The Junts plan was meanwhile in the drawer.
Come forward three years and we now have a new common front. A new mayor, a new government, and a new comprehensive plan. But seemingly not as comprehensive as it might be.
