The quality of water on the beaches of Ibiza and Formentera, as in the rest of the Balearic Islands, is reduced by leaps and bounds. In Balearic key, just a decade ago 93% of the tastings conducted by the Environmental Health Department of the Government gave an excellent result. Last year, however, the percentage dropped to 70%.
Regarding Ibiza, in 2015 93% of the beaches analyzed were excellent. In 2019, only 76% of beaches had this consideration, while last year it achieved 51%.
As for 2018, 78% of the beaches were excellent; 15% considered good and 5% sufficient.
Mercedes Alemany, head of the Environmental Health Service, said yesterday that this worsening is due to different reasons and that several responsible are involved. Mainly, Alemany explained that poor water purification, as well as the poor state of many supply networks, may be behind this worrying reduction in quality levels. «There is also a factor of climate change that is causing an increase in sea temperature. In addition, every year there are more people in the islands and, undoubtedly, this influences everything», he said.
«There must be proper maintenance of the infrastructure and its adaptation to the number of people there», he reiterated.
For Alemany, it is really worrying that Ibiza is the island where more fecal discharges have been recorded in recent years.
Throughout the summer, he also recalled that periodic sampling is carried out in about 40 sections of the Pitiuso coast, with «a series of black spots that are repeated every year», said the head of service.
We are finding that there are more and more breaches because the quality has fallen a lot. I find it worrying and those responsible should take action and see what is happening. At the moment, there are no beaches with insufficient quality, but measures must be taken», he also insisted.
In 2023, Ibiza has already registered 13 breaches or incidents that have reduced water quality on beaches.
Balearic Islands
Ibiza is the island of the Balearic Islands that historically has the most episodes of fecal pollution, especially in the municipalities of Sant Antoni and Sant Josep, while in Formentera the water quality is usually excellent.
In Menorca, Ciutadella is the most affected municipality and in Mallorca pollution episodes are often repeated in the areas of the bay of Palma.
In the last update of the official website of the Govern all the beaches were suitable for bathing. This information is updated every fortnight as the analyses are carried out. Water monitoring is carried out on the basis of European legislation designed to protect the health of users. Thus, it takes place during the bathing season established between 8 May and 5 October, when there is a greater influx of users.
In the Balearic Islands, there are 160 bathing areas with a total of 191 sampling points along the coast, spread over 32 municipalities. «Water is taken when it reaches a meter deep and the sample must be submerged 20 centimeters», explained the technicians responsible.
Each tasting is then taken to the laboratories where it is analyzed if there is presence of the bacteria Escherichia coli and intestinal Enterococci. If the presence is high, bathing is prohibited until the incidence is corrected.
The Alliance for Water of Ibiza and Formentera also recently stated that in 2022 there was a «slight improvement» in the quality of Ibiza's bathing waters. They assured this by evaluating the data collected for the Ibiza Sustainability Report 2022, prepared by the Sustainability Observatory of IbizaPreservation.
In particular, there were 21 bathing areas qualified as excellent, one more than in 2021, although there was a decrease in the quality of bathing water in Cala Bassa, which went from excellent to good, and in Portinatx, which went from good to sufficient, while Cala Pada improved its situation from good to excellent.