Mallorca has built an average of three swimming pools a day in the last decade, aggravating the water shortage

Mallorca has built an average of three swimming pools a day over the last decade, a pace that contrasts with the growing difficulties that some municipalities on the Island have in guaranteeing water supply during the summer months. Between 2015 and 2024, 10,680 pools were built, according to a study presented by the environmental entity Terraferida, which represents 1,166 per year.

30% of these new pools, a total of 3,239, were built on rural land, while the remaining 7,441 are located on urban land. To these figures we should add indoor swimming pools, which cannot be detected using the aerial images used in the study, as well as removable installations, the proliferation of which has also increased in recent years.

The result is that in the Balearic Islands there are twice as many swimming pools per person as in the rest of the autonomous communities. There are 79,588 according to the cadastre data, 100,000 more if we add the 20,000 illegal ones that are estimated to exist on all the islands. There is one swimming pool for every 14 residents when the average on the peninsula is one swimming pool for every 30 or 35, according to the data provided at the time by the General Director of Water Resources of the Government, Joan Calafat.

Terraferida links this growth to tourist rentals, the construction of single-family homes on rural land and real estate speculation. Having a swimming pool increases the value of properties and their attractiveness for tourist rentals, which is why the entity demands a moratorium on new swimming pools, especially on rural land. Calculations indicate that, in this decade, more than 4,000 chalets have been built in the countryside.

The entity points out another problem linked to these facilities: the grass that accompanies them. Terraferida estimates that 100 square meters of grass may require about 80,000 liters of water per year. A chalet with 600 square meters of garden would need, with this calculation, about 480,000 liters per year, equivalent to 48 tanker trucks.

The problem is not only the water needed to fill swimming pools or water lawns. Evaporation causes pools in the Balearic Islands to lose between 7 and 8 cubic hectometers of water each year, to which approximately another hectometer is added due to the cleaning of the filters. Altogether, the consumption associated with swimming pools represents around 6% of the water destined for supply and is equivalent to the annual consumption of around 50,000 homes, around 150,000 people.

The growth of these facilities occurs at a very difficult time for the water resources of the archipelago. This summer, at least four municipalities in Mallorca, Deià, Valldemossa, Esporles and Sóller, all of them in the Serra de Tramuntana, have applied restrictions or measures to limit consumption, while other municipalities in the interior of the island have also had to adopt measures at different times.

Palma is the municipality that has built the most swimming pools in the last decade, with 1,368, followed by Marratxí (815), Calvià (725), Llucmajor (668), Santanyí (666) and Manacor (649). If measured in relation to the population, the most striking case is Ariany, with 626 swimming pools per 10,000 inhabitants, followed by Santanyí, Campos and Costitx.