Good quality of the coastal waters in the harbours of general interest of the Balearic Islands
Palma de Mallorca
17/08/2015
The Port Authority of Balearic Islands (PAB) has carried out a control plan of the quality of the waters of the coastal areas and the anchoring and maritime access areas of the harbours of general interest, with the aim of keeping an eye on the environmental quality and managing the possible polluting episodes. Thus, a management program suggested by the State Ports Authority –the ROM 5.1- has been voluntarily applied in collaboration with the firm Grupo Daphnia. After analysing the water of the harbours of Palma and Alcúdia in Majorca, Maó’s harbour in Minorca, Eivissa’s harbour and the Savina harbour in Formentera it has been concluded that the level of quality is good according to the European standards. Attention to torrents Despite the good quality of the water, it has been observed that the water coming from the cities through the torrents may cause some polluting focal points, especially due to the so-called “fang anòxic” settled in the harbour beds and reaching the surface with heavy rains and the boats’ movement. In fact, the regulation of bathing water is met throughout almost the whole year, except during heavy rains. The drains cause the same polluting effect, especially in Maó. For this reason the PAB works to collaborate with other administrations and improve the quality of the coastal waters of the cities. The application of the ROM 5.1 requires the segmentation of the harbours in a minimum number of areas in order to concentrate the water analysis works. In the case of Palma’s harbour, these areas have been exceeded in order to guarantee a throughout control of its waters.
