Tourism consumes one out of every four liters of water in the Balearic Islands

A study by the Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB) on water consumption during the first confinement of the pandemic has revealed that tourism consumes 24.2 percent of water resources on the Islands, some 33 million cubic meters year.

Illes Balears approves the tourist law that bets on the decrease and freezes places for four years

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The study, prepared by doctors Celso García and Enrique Morán, calculated the reduction in water consumption during the phase of mobility restrictions in 2020, between April and June, to find out the volume of water used by tourist activity.

The researchers have also revealed the differences that the results show by municipalities depending on the importance of tourism.

In this way, while Muro (Mallorca) showed a decrease in consumption of up to 70 percent, the drop in consumption in Palma, with a significant weight of the resident population, consumption fell by 16 percent during confinement.

On the other hand, researchers have lamented that the water-saving measures contained in the tourist law approved this Tuesday in Parliament "arrive late" and that, furthermore, some have already been applied in hotels for 25 or 30 years, such as double pushbuttons. According to the experts, “we will have to wait to see the real impact on savings”.

Along the same lines, they have called for more ambitious measures such as a true commitment to the use of reclaimed water. “The sewage treatment plants are the great forgotten ones. If you use water for other purposes you will not have to use groundwater and the aquifers will be able to regenerate”, they added.