| Newsletter October 13, 2022 |
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| Bi-national swimming pond experts meeting |
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The Iberian swimming pond experts meet every two years. This time we went from Granada to Salobreña on the coast. Four different swimming ponds were visited on the trip, all planned by our colleagues Jairo Villegas and Piotr Jankowski, who also organized this year's meeting. The mood is always very collegial and problems and solutions are exchanged openly, according to the principle "knowledge is one of the few things that increases through sharing". This is of inestimable importance, especially for our members who do not speak German. Most of the specialist knowledge has been collected in the German-speaking countries and to this day there is a lack of sophisticated, correct literature on the current state of knowledge, both in English and in Spanish! During the inspection we found e.g. several times tropical hardwood in and above the water. The problem of the natural biocides released by this wood, which massively disturb the water biology, was only known to regular visitors to the international congresses, because the topic was dealt with several times there.
The 5th swimming pond belonged to our congress hotel and was immediately tested and celebrated in it into the evening.
The focus of the second day was on the further training of our members, from water chemistry to the right choice of plants and environmentally friendly construction methods to materials for sealing biological pools and their specific properties.
On the last day we held the annual meeting with the election of the new board and closed the meeting with a practical introduction to water analysis, the propagation of native aquatic plants and the welding of TPO liners.
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| Water Alliance Ibiza & Formentera |
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The water supply problems on Ibiza and Formentera had reached an unbearable level in the middle of the last decade. Due to the extreme increase in water demand in summer because of the uncontrolled growth in tourism, the groundwater reserves were plundered. Many wells dried up, seawater filtered in and the remaining groundwater became increasingly salinated. During this time, some communities were no longer able to pump enough water to cover consumption. Some areas went without tap water for days, not to mention the water quality. The seawater desalination plants were not yet connected to the mains network, partly due to delayed procedures and disputes, and the necessary connections were also missing...
Changing political majorities with different priorities slow down consistent planning.
In order to finally find meaningful solutions to the problems and to pursue them continuously beyond legislative periods, the Wasserallianz was founded, a non-partisan non-governmental organization composed of representatives of civil society and the communities of Ibiza and Formentera.
The Wasserallianz not only developed the groundwater rescue plan, but also carried out public relations work, wrote newspaper reports, held interviews on radio and TV and skilfully built up the political pressure that no major party could escape. The Water Alliance developed the first “Water Pact” for the 2019 elections: all political parties standing for election were invited to accept the Water Pact and committed themselves in a declaration to implementing it if they were elected. This was publicized in the press and all parties with larger electoral potential joined. The implementation of the water plan was already confirmed in the first official statement by the new government. The Water Alliance had established itself as the central think tank on the future of water on the Pitiusas, independent of political parties and recognized by community technicians.
All desalination plants are now working and connected to each other. Thus, even in midsummer, enough water of drinking quality reaches even the most problematic areas. The groundwater has already partially recovered.
A still unsolved problem is the lack of separation of rainwater and sewer systems. Large amounts of untreated sewage still flow directly into the sea, especially after heavy rains. Another important goal is the reuse of well-treated wastewater for irrigation in agriculture or for street cleaning. We've accomplished a lot, but there's still a lot to do!
New elections are pending and the Wasserallianz voted at the annual meeting on September 27th. presented the Water Pact 2022. The focus this time is the expansion of the sewage system and the completion of the new, large Sa Coma sewage treatment plant for Ibiza Town and the improvement of the sewage treatment capacity. Because Allianz's motto has been "not a drop into the sea" for years. As a society, we cannot afford to continue wasting, polluting and dumping precious water unchecked into the sea. Water is far too precious and must be treated on the island, reused and seeped away here so that the groundwater can recover. For this purpose, the nature-based solutions we demanded were included in the pact for the first time. These are already required worldwide by the IUCN (the UN environmental agency) and Europe-wide in the EU Green Deal, but have only arrived at this planning level in Ibiza through the swimming pond association GIABN. Another topic, which we also demand massively, is the protection, renaturation and creation of freshwater biotopes. This also includes our swimming ponds with purely biological water purification.
Before the election, all parties will again be asked to sign this water pact and commit themselves to complying with it. It is important to us that voters can clearly see who is committed to sustainable use, at least when it comes to water. |
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