Palma’s city government wants its own desalination plant, but the timeline means the capital of Mallorca will rely on stretched aquifers and existing regional plants for years to come.
The plan on the table
According to reporting by ARA Balears, the Sustainable Water Management Plan drawn up by municipal company Emaya proposes a new plant costing around €135 million. It is scheduled for 2035, would have a capacity of up to 36 cubic hectometres a year, and is described in the plan as a “structural pillar” of the city’s supply. The plan assumes Palma’s population will reach 572,178 by 2040 and calculates that the city would need to capture at least 37.59 cubic hectometres of water annually.
The gap until then
Experts cited by ARA Balears say a new plant takes five to six years to build, so the plan also adds up to 3.86 cubic hectometres a year of new groundwater abstractions. That equates to roughly 10.6 million litres a day, or about 10 percent of the water availability planned for Palma in 2040. Critics, including the environmental group Alianza por el Agua, argue this deepens pressure on aquifers that have already suffered salinisation and overexploitation. Emaya says the plan also includes leak reduction, remote metering, saving campaigns and reuse of regenerated water and rainwater.
The existing plant is being upgraded
Palma’s current Bay of Palma plant dates from 1999. The Balearic government said in August that it had awarded the renovation contract at €50 million, per the Majorca Daily Bulletin, up from the roughly €40 million at which the work was put out to tender in 2025. Regional officials have also planned a connection between the Palma Bay plant and the Abaqua agency’s main network, and the Alcudia plant has at times been supplying Palma when municipal supply fell short.
Why it matters
The Palma debate is a clear example of how desalination timelines collide with population growth and drought risk. Desalinated water now makes up about 62 percent of what Abaqua supplies across Mallorca, so the question is less whether to desalinate than who builds and controls new capacity, and how much groundwater is used to bridge the wait.