One of the problems with the weather is that it can so dominate news that there is barely room for anything else. In light of events in Valencia, this has been understandable. On the one hand, as noted elsewhere in this week’s paper, the extent of the coverage is a good thing in that the public are being well informed and advised. On the other hand, as also noted, is what can happen because of the regularity and hyperbole of reporting and when the forecasts prove to be less than accurate. All the good work in alerting the public can be undone.
There was an impression, rightly or wrongly, of a Balearic Government propaganda exercise. Amber alerts were issued and so therefore were IG1 civil protection risk alerts for flooding. The emergencies directorate set up the command unit. And there    were photos of this unit. Again. We saw it in the aftermath of Valencia when a DANA isolated depression was heading our way and we saw it again when another DANA was tracking across on Tuesday.
The point is that there always is an IG1 alert. There always is a command unit. But if there weren’t, the government wasn’t going to fail in bringing about either because of Valencia – and especially because a Partido Popular president and government in Valencia have copped for an almighty amount of flak. Has PP HQ in Madrid been sending out special directions to its other regional governments? “Whatever you do, don’t get caught out like Carlos Mazón was in Valencia.” “Flood (sic) the media with images of emergencies coordination.”
So we have had all this barrage on top of the at-times hysteria of reporting at odds with the realities. Neither last week’s DANA nor this week’s produced exceptional amounts of rain. The Tuesday to Wednesday weather event had a maximum rainfall of 50 litres per square metre over a 24-hour period; well removed from a possible 40 in an hour, which had been threatened. It wasn’t a damp squib as the odd torrent did burst its banks and there was flooding – Manacor was worst affected on Wednesday – but it was hardly out of the ordinary.
We understand that Aemet can’t get things 100% right as these events simply aren’t that predictable. But it is this knowledge which should temper reporting. Otherwise it can either put the fear of God up people unnecessarily or they take no notice – which could prove to be tragic.
The other great fear – fire
Civil protection risk and emergency has been a theme of the past few days and not just because of the heavy rain and potential flooding. Another of the island’s great fears is fire, and the head of the Balearics Forestry Service, Joan Santana, says that      the islands’ forests are at greater risk because the forested area has doubled over the past fifty years.
This should be good news and would be if it weren’t for the fact that there is “a serious problem of rural abandonment“, leaving the forest to its fate. The effects of fire can therefore be more extensive and their intensity also increases because of the accumulated biomass. Santana explains that only seven per cent of forest is publicly owned and that while private owners rarely deny access to teams who create fire protection strips, it has been known. It is curious that owners of rural properties in the Balearics are not obliged to create firebreaks; they are in other Spanish regions.
According to the Infobal special emergency civil protection plan for forest fires, there are 21 municipalities in Mallorca most at risk of forest fires – 40% of all the 53 municipalities. These are mostly in the mountainous areas – Llevant as well as Tramuntana – but include Marratxi and Palma. They are all meant to have emergency plans that determine which homes, streets or spaces are most vulnerable to potential fires. As for obligations, Joan Santana says: “There is no specific inspection unit and I don’t know of any sanctions having been imposed.”
The potential flooding of springs
The perhaps inappropriately named Palma Springs project in Playa de Palma will not be going ahead, local authorities and courts having rejected this shopping and leisure complex in the area of Ses Fontanelles.
French real-estate company Unibail Rodamco was behind the project which was as good as definitively scuppered by a 2019 court ruling. However, the company hasn’t given up completely. With a new ruling administration at Palma Town Hall, procedures for a different type of development have been initiated. This will include shops but also public facilities, green spaces and up to 434 homes. It’s not been said what type of homes these might be.
On the face of it this sounds positive, but there is also the potential risk. Ses Fontanelles means something like small springs or fountains (hence the Palma Springs name). This comes from the wetland, which was a key reason for objections to Palma Springs. The studies that accompany the latest project rule out risk of flooding, but the government has classified the area as being potentially subject to flooding because of the presence of wetland.
Spending on social housing
It would be nice to think that all these 434 homes might be social housing – assuming they can indeed be built – and neither the town hall nor the regional government would turn its nose up at the possibility. Meanwhile, the government, in the form of the Partido Popular, would appear to be lining up some tourist tax revenue investment in social housing.
If so, this would represent another U-turn by the PP in terms of their attitude to the tax. Having once been opposed to the tax, they are now fully committed to it. And having once removed the legal possibility of using revenue for social housing, they are on the point of reinstating this. It is thought that some six million euros of tax revenue could be allocated to protected public housing (VPO) in next year’s budget.
Protecting heritage by buying it
In Alcudia, the town hall will be spending on protecting heritage property. This is for land plus the refuge in what was once the farming colony of Gatamoix, also known as Poble Nou. Founded in the 1870s by the British engineers of the New Majorca Land Company who were responsible for draining and cultivating Albufera, it was finally depopulated in 1923. The refuge was all that was left. It has been used for summer camps and managed on behalf of the Piarist Order, who are selling properties in Spain. The investment is part of a town hall 30 million-euro package for acquiring land and heritage assets. Well, it does have a heck of a lot of cash in the bank – over 100 million.
A different form of heritage that has only cost around 8.5 million euros is the one-time Gordiola glass factory that was located in the Dalt Murada section of Palma’s old walls. It’s been closed since 1969, but it has been bought for redevelopment as a luxury property; the project for this has apparently been given the go-ahead. One of the Porsche family, Hans-Peter, who founded the Alcanada Golf in 2003, believed he had a verbal contract to buy the property from the Gordiola family. The courts have taken a different view; the new owner is an anonymous German businessperson.
The slowness of overtourism measures
Thirty million is what the Council of Mallorca will be spending on improvements to the road network. This is Balearic Government money, and so the Council will have to fully back up and justify all that is actually spent. The Balearic president, Marga Prohens, has previously said that “we cannot normalise traffic jams”, so improvements are essential as are studies of carrying capacities.
In this regard, the Council’s president, Llorenç Galmés, said earlier this week that it would not be possible to introduce measures to limit vehicles entering Mallorca until 2026 (hire cars, private cars such as for holiday use). This is because of the carrying capacity studies that didn’t start until after the PP won the 2023 Council election. Galmés may well be right in this, but is this not an indication – and really quite an important one – of the tardiness in actually introducing measures that tackle overtourism? Limiting vehicles is one of the easier measures, unless one of the car-hire associations chooses to make it difficult through a challenge on freedom-of-movement grounds.
The Forum for Civil Society, which comprises entities such as citizens associations and environmentalists, has been holding talks with tour operators and hoteliers about ways of tackling overtourism. Proving the old advertising adage of “it’s good to talk”, these opposites have been building bridges and finding they do have much in common. They hope to announce bilateral proposals before Christmas, the forum explaining that these will be forwarded to the government’s pact for sustainability working parties but criticising this pact for, among other things, its slowness. The forum is represented on nine of the twelve working parties, but it has threatened to withdraw from all of them unless the government effects some improvements.
